χαμαιλέων

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /kʰa.mai̯.lé.ɔːn/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /xa.mɛˈle.on/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /xa.meˈle.on/^[1]

Forms

χᾰμαιλέων (khamailéōn) m (genitive χᾰμαιλέοντος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek χαμαί (khamaí, “on the ground”) + λέων (léōn, “lion”): “ground lion”.^[1][2] Wiktionary takes it to be ultimately a calque of Akkadian nēšu ša qaqqari (“chameleon, reptile”), literally “lion of the ground”.^[1] Χαμαί keeps the zero grade of the old word for earth, Proto-Indo-European *dʰéǵʰōm, seen in χθών (khthṓn).^[3][2]

A Semitic origin from the word for camel, Biblical Hebrew גָּמָל (gāmāl), once proposed, is rejected by Rosół.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Aristotle describes the animal in the History of Animals, and in the Nicomachean Ethics makes it an image of a man whose fortunes keep changing.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

Plutarch compares Alcibiades to a chameleon for his changefulness.^[5][6] Theophrastus and Dioscorides give the name to several plants whose leaves change colour, such as the pine-thistle.^[5] In the Septuagint it is among the unclean creeping animals of Leviticus.^[7] Hesychius defines it as an egg-laying animal that walks.^[8]

Latin borrowed it as chamaeleōn, and English took camelion from French in the mid-14th century; the figurative sense of a changeable person is attested in English by the 1580s.^[1][2] Modern Greek has χαμαιλέοντας (chamailéontas).^[1]

Timeline

• 4th century BC – Aristotle describes the chameleon and uses it as an image of changefulness.^[5][6]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus uses it for a plant.^[5]
• 3rd–1st century BC – The Septuagint lists it among unclean animals.^[7]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch compares Alcibiades to a chameleon.^[5][6]
• Mid-14th century – English borrows it as camelion.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The chameleon.^[5][6]
2. (figurative) A changeable person.^[5][6]
3. (botany) Several plants whose leaves change colour, such as the pine-thistle.^[5][1]

Related words

• χαμαί (khamaí)
• λέων (léōn)
• χθών (khthṓn)
• Latin chamaeleon
• English chameleon

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
8. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)