different between apparition vs chimera

English

Etymology

From Middle French apparition, from Latin apparitio, from appareo.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?æp.?????n?/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?æp.????.n?/, /?æp.???.??n/

Noun

apparition (plural apparitions)

1. An act of becoming visible; appearance; visibility.
   • 1856-1858, William H. Prescott, History of the Reign of Philip II

     the sudden apparition of the Spaniards
2. The thing appearing; a visible object; a form.
   • August 16, 1709, Isaac Bickerstaff (pseudonym for Richard Steele or (in some later numbers of the journal) Joseph Addison), The Tatler No. 55

     […] which apparition, it seems, was you.

3. An unexpected, wonderful, or preternatural appearance; especially something such as a ghost or phantom.

   The attic is haunted by the ghostly apparition of a young girl who died there.
4. (astronomy) The first appearance of a star or other luminary after having been invisible or obscured; opposed to occultation.
5. (astronomy) A period of consecutive days or nights when a particular celestial body may be observed, beginning with the heliacal rising of the body and ending with its heliacal setting.

Synonyms

• (act of becoming visible): appearance
• (a preternatural appearance): vision
• See also Thesaurus:ghost

Related terms

• apparent
• appearance

Translations

French

Etymology

From Latin app?riti?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.pa.?i.sj??/

Noun

apparition f (plural apparitions)

1. appearance
2. ghost
3. (baseball) plate appearance

Synonyms

• (ghost): fantôme
• (plate appearance): apparition au bâton, présence, présence au bâton

Derived terms

• faire son apparition

Further reading

• “apparition” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

English

Etymology

From Middle English chimere, from French chimère, from Latin chimaera, from Ancient Greek ??????? (khímaira, “chimera; female goat”), from ??????? (khímaros, “male goat”), from Proto-Indo-European *g?ei-. The Latin form has become more common from the 16th century.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /k???m????/, /k?-/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ka??mi???/, /ka??m???/
• Hyphenation: chi?me?ra

Noun

chimera (plural chimeras)

1. (Greek mythology) Alternative letter-case form of Chimera (a flame-spewing monster often represented as having two heads, one of a goat and the other of a lion; the body of a goat; and a serpent as a tail).
2. (mythology) Any fantastic creature with parts from different animals.
3. Anything composed of very disparate parts.
4. A foolish, incongruous, or vain thought or product of the imagination.
   • 1818, anonymous [Mary Shelley], chapter II, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, London: Printed for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, ?OCLC; republished as Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein: Or, The Modern Prometheus […] In Two Volumes, volume I, new (2nd) edition, London: Printed for G. and W. B. Whittaker, Ave-Maria-Lane, 1823, ?OCLC, page 71:

     It was very different, when the masters of the science sought immortality and power; such views, although futile, were grand: but now the scene was changed. The ambition of the inquirer seemed to limit itself to the annihilation of those visions on which my interest in science was chiefly founded. I was required to exchange chimeras of boundless grandeur for realities of little worth.
5. (architecture) A grotesque like a gargoyle, but without a spout for rainwater.
6. (genetics) An organism with genetically distinct cells originating from two or more zygotes.
7. Usually chimaera: a cartilaginous marine fish in the subclass Holocephali and especially the order Chimaeriformes, with a blunt snout, long tail, and a spine before the first dorsal fin.

Alternative forms

• chimaera
• chimæra

Synonyms

• (fish): ghost shark, rabbitfish, ratfish
• (anything composed of very disparate parts): motley crew

Antonyms

• (anything composed of very disparate parts): monolith

Derived terms

Related terms

• Chimaera
• chimere

Translations

See also

• Appendix:Glossary of architecture

References

Further reading

• chimera (mythology) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• chimera (genetics) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Chimaera on Wikipedia.Wikipedia (fish)
• chimera (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• haremic

Italian

Etymology

From Latin chimaera, from Ancient Greek ??????? (Khímaira).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ki?me.ra/

Noun

chimera f (plural chimere)

1. chimera
2. chimera, a kind of shark of the genus Chimaera