different between chimerical vs qilin

English

Alternative forms

• chimaerical, chimærical

Etymology

From chimera, from Latin chimaera, from Ancient Greek ??????? (khímaira, “she-goat”). This term entered English in or around 1638.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??m???k?l/

Adjective

chimerical (comparative more chimerical, superlative most chimerical)

1. Of or pertaining to a chimera.
2. Being a figment of the imagination; fantastic (in the archaic sense).
   • 1887, Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet

     "Yes; I have a turn both for observation and for deduction. The theories which I have expressed there, and which appear to you to be so chimerical, are really extremely practical—so practical that I depend upon them for my bread and cheese."

   a chimerical goal

3. Inherently fantastic; wildly fanciful.
4. Resulting from the expression of two or more genes that originally coded for separate proteins.

Derived terms

• chimerically

Translations

Anagrams

• cimeliarch

English

Etymology

From Mandarin ?? (qílín). Doublet of kirin.

Noun

qilin (plural qilins)

1. A mythical Chinese hooved chimerical creature, said to appear in conjunction with the arrival of a sage.
   • 1989, Ernst J. Grube, Eleanor G. Sims, Islamic Art: Volume 3

     ...a red and gold textile with phoenixes in one row swooping towards qilins in the next amidst a densely foliated ground...

   • 2001, David J. Roxburgh, Prefacing the image: the writing of art history in sixteenth-century Iran

     Roundel depicting dragon attacked by qilins; mounted on an album page.

   • 2010, Molly Blaisdell, Necdet Yilmaz, Truth about Unicorns

     When the qilin leaves, the emperor traces the shapes he saw into the dirt.

Synonyms

• kirin

Translations