# chameleon
## English
### Alternative forms

* chamaeleon, chamæleon

### Etymology

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 𒌨𒈤𒊭𒆠 (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.

### Pronunciation

* enPR: kəmē'lēən, kəmēl'yən; IPA: /kəˈmi.li.ən/, /kəˈmil.jən/
* Audio (Northwestern US):(file)
* Audio (Southern England):(file)

### Noun

chameleon (plural chameleons)
* 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.
** 1998, “Corridor of Chameleons”, performed by Meshuggah:A contagious neuro-ego-disease. A virus sticking to liars. We're the self-centered fuel to boost the new strain of fire. Adapting, shifting, lacking opinion. Our numbers exceeding the billions. Everly walking among ourselves down the corridor of chameleons.
* (figurative) A person with inconstant behavior; one able to quickly adjust to new circumstances.
    Synonym: Zelig
** 2014 September 8, Michael White, “Roll up, roll up! The Amazing Salmond will show a Scotland you won't believe”, in The Guardian: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.
* (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

* American chameleon
* chameleonic
* chameleonize
* chameleon-like
* chameleonlike
* chameleon mineral
* chameleon plant
* chameleon schema
* Fischer's chameleon
* Jackson's chameleon
* panther chameleon

#### Translations
### Adjective

chameleon (not comparable)
* That changes or modifies its color.
    The wall was covered with a chameleon paint.

### References

* ↑ “chameleon”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
* ↑ “chameleon”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
* ↑ “chameleon” (US) / “chameleon” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.

### Further reading

* William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “chameleon”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
* “chameleon”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* 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 (2000) A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian, 2nd corrected edition, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, page 251

## Czech
### Alternative forms

* chameleón

### Pronunciation

* IPA: [ˈxamɛlɛon]
* IPA: [ˈxamɛlɛoːn]

### Noun

chameleon m anim
* chameleon