Chimera (Noun)

Definition 1: (1) A fire-breathing Greek mythological monster with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail killed by Bellerophon. (2) An organism or organ made up of genetically different tissue types, usually produced by transplant, grafting, or genetic engineering. (3) A wildly fantastic, almost unimaginable illusion.

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Usage 1: The adjective of today's word is either "chimeric" or "chimerical," the suffix –al usually meaningless when added to –ic. Thus, "syntactic" and "syntactical," "historic" and "historical," "magic" and "magical" are synonymous pairs. However, there is no omitting –al when forming adverbs from these adjectives: it is only "syntactically," "historically," and "chimerically," NOT "chimericly," etc.

Suggested usage: The idea behind today's word is a monster put together of incongruous parts of various animals. Dr. Frankenstein's monster was certainly a chimera. However, a plant with grafted parts is also a chimera. A peaceful planet may also be a chimera, a fanciful illusion no more possible than the original referent of "chimera."

Etymology: From Latin chimaera, borrowed from Greek khimaira "chimera, nanny goat." The Greek word derives rather oddly from the Proto-Indo-European root for "winter," *ghiem-, found in Sanskrit hima, Russian zima, and Latin hiems "winter." The Latin noun has an adjective, "hibernus," which is the origin of English "hibernate." The general thought is that "khimaira" originally referred to a nanny goat one year (winter) old, a "winterling," so to speak. (We have Dr. Richard R. Everson, the retired clinical psychologist, for today's highly faceted, hircine word.)

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