different between chameleon vs iguanian

English

Alternative forms

• chamaeleon, chamæleon

Etymology

From Middle English camelion, from Old French cameleon, from Latin chamaeleon, from Ancient Greek ????????? (khamailé?n), from ????? (khamaí, “on the earth, on the ground”) + ???? (lé?n, “lion”); ultimately a calque from Akkadian ???????????????? (n?šu 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.

Pronunciation

• enPR: k?m?'l??n, IPA^(key): /k??mi?l??n/; enPR: k?m?l'y?n, IPA^(key): /k??mi?lj?n/

Noun

chameleon (plural 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.

Derived terms

• chameleonize

Translations

Holonyms

• (Individual Chamaeleonidae) Starship

Adjective

chameleon (not comparable)

1. Describing something that changes color.

   The wall was covered with a chameleon paint.

References

Further reading

• chameleon in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 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
• n?šu(m) in Black, Jeremy; George, Andrew; Postgate, Nicholas (1976) A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian, 2nd corrected edition, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, page 251

Czech

Noun

chameleon m

1. chameleon

English

Etymology

Iguania +? -an

Noun

iguanian (plural iguanians)

1. Any of the suborder Iguania of iguanas, chameleons, agamids, and "New World lizards".

Adjective

iguanian (comparative more iguanian, superlative most iguanian)

1. Of or pertaining to the lizard infraorder Iguania.