chameleonとは

意味・読み方・使い方

別の表記

• chamaeleon, chamæleon

語源

From Middle English camelion, from Old French cameleon, from Latin chamaeleon, from Ancient Greek χαμαιλέων (khamailéōn), from χαμαί (khamaí, “on the earth, on the ground”) + λέων (léōn, “lion”); ultimately a calque from Akkadian �������� (nēšu ša qaqqari, “chameleon, reptile”, literally “lion of the ground", "predator that crawls upon the ground”). The spelling was re-latinized in the early 18th century. The physics sense was coined by Justin Khoury and Amanda Weltman in 2003 in a paper in Physical Review Letters.

発音

• enPR: kəmē'lēən, IPA^(key): /kəˈmiːlɪən/; enPR: kəmēl'yən, IPA^(key): /kəˈmiːljən/^[1][2][3]

名詞

chameleon (複数形 chameleons)

1. A small to mid-size reptile, of the family Chamaeleonidae, and one of the best known lizard families able to change color and project its long tongue.
2. A person with inconstant behavior; one able to quickly adjust to new circumstances.
   • 2014, Michael White, "Roll up, roll up! The Amazing Salmond will show a Scotland you won't believe", The Guardian, 8 September 2014:

     He is a political chameleon, as charming to business leaders he met privately in Aberdeen on Friday night as he has been inspiring to distressed and desperate Labour defectors in Glasgow and beyond.

3. (physics) A hypothetical scalar particle with a non-linear self-interaction, giving it an effective mass that depends on its environment: the presence of other fields.

派生語

• chameleonize

Holonyms

• (Individual Chamaeleonidae) Starship

形容詞

chameleon (not comparable)

1. Describing something that changes color.

   The wall was covered with a chameleon paint.

参照

Further reading

• chameleon in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• chameleon in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• Critical and Philological Notes: Tablet XI, Note 314 in Andrew R. George (2003) The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic: Introduction, Critical Edition and Cuneiform Texts, Volume II, Oxford University Press, pages 896-897
• nēšu(m) in Black, Jeremy; George, Andrew; Postgate, Nicholas (1976) A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian, 2nd corrected edition, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, page 251