chameleon. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

chameleon

SYLLABICATION:	cha·me·leon
PRONUNCIATION:	k-mlyn, -ml-n
NOUN:	1. Any of various tropical Old World lizards of the family Chamaeleonidae, characterized by their ability to change color. 2. See anole. 3. A changeable or inconstant person: “In his testimony, the nominee came off as . . . a chameleon of legal philosophy” (Joseph A. Califano, Jr.).
ETYMOLOGY:	Middle English camelioun, from Latin chamaelen, from Greek khamailen : khamai, on the ground; see dhghem- in Appendix I + len, lion (loan translation of Akkadian n qaqqari, ground lion, lizard); see lion.
OTHER FORMS:	cha·mele·onic (-l-nk) —ADJECTIVE
WORD HISTORY:	The words referring to the animal chameleon and the plant chamomile are related etymologically by a reference to the place one would expect to find them, that is, on the ground. The first part of both words goes back to the Greek form khamai, meaning “on the ground.” What is found on the ground in each case is quite different, of course. The khamailen is a “lion [len] on the ground,” a term translating the Akkadian phrase n qaqqari. The khamaimlon is “an apple [mlon] on the ground,” so named because the blossoms of at least one variety of this creeping herb have an applelike scent. Both words are first found in Middle English, chameleon in a work composed before 1382 and chamomile in a work written in 1373.


The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.