Plants & CreaturesGreek → English
Chameleon
/kəˈmiliən/noun
A tree-dwelling lizard that changes colour and moves its eyes independently.
The Greek roots
χαμαί
khamaí
on the ground
λέων
léōn
lion
Literally: “ground lion”
The story of the word
Ground lion is an odd name for a small lizard, and it probably comes from the crest along the head and the way the animal inflates its throat when challenged. The same χαμαί hides in chamomile, the earth-apple, named for the scent of its low-growing flowers. English had the word by the mid-14th century and was using it of turncoats by the 1580s.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- mid-14th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
chamomilechamaephyte
In a sentence
The chameleon took four minutes to cross one branch.
He is a political chameleon and has been on every side of this.