Chimera

noun

  • A vision or fantasy that only exists in the imagination and is not possible in reality; an illusion or fabrication of the mind
  • In Greek mythology, a fire-breathing monster with the head of a lion, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail
  • Any grotesque creature featuring disparate parts of the body, usually of different animals
  • In medicine or biology, a person or being composed of two genetically distinct types of cells or tissues

Usage

Most of us have heard the wild imaginings that money grows on trees or that the moon is made of Swiss cheese. These ideas, though quite stirring if possible, could never exist in reality. These eccentric fantasies of the mind are considered to be chimeras. You might have hoped as a child to someday sprout wings and fly, or maybe you pretended that you could morph into any animal you wanted. With such a capacity for the imagination it seems that children can think up some of the most inventive chimeras of them all. But the hopes and dreams of a chimeric idea are ones that are wild and unrealistic, and are not expected ever to come to fruition.

Many people hear the word chimera and think mythology—the part lion, part goat, part serpent creature that frequents Greek legend. But a chimera really can refer to any monster, any grotesque creature with a combination of disparate parts, only fathomable by the wildest imagination. Chimeras are often found portrayed in ancient art, but also have made appearances in popular culture—whether it be Godzilla's adversary with ram-like horns and a lion's head with a serpentine tongue and tail, Harry Potter creatures like the part-eagle part-horse Hippogriff, or even Beast from the classic tale Beauty & the Beast, with a collection of parts from bison, gorilla, lion, hyena, boar, bear, and wolf.

Beyond the monsters though, a chimera is a wild fantasy, a fanciful fabrication of the mind that could not exist in reality. Let's say you are sitting in history class learning about the Trojan War. Suddenly the teacher's desk explodes and out come about a dozen Greeks warriors clad in decorated armor and red capes. Two of them argue with the teacher while the rest push the class to the corner of the room. You are delighted to see one warrior fiercely interrogating the annoying know-it-all of the class. Of course, this hasn't really happened. It was but a chimera of your own creation as you began to daydream during the lesson.

A final usage of the word chimera is in biology. It refers to a person or being genetically composed of different cells or tissues. It can be someone of multiple blood types, or even someone born as a hermaphrodite with both male and female reproductive organs. Like the traditional chimeras of mythology, the idea is that the person exhibits multiples qualities that do not normally exist together.

Example: Chimeras have evolved from Greek mythology to take other forms in popular culture, like the Hippogriff made famous in Harry Potter, featuring the front quarters of an eagle and the hind quarters of a horse.

Example: Though the idea of flying to the moon was once thought to be a chimera, technology has made our wildest science fiction fantasies a reality.

Example: Blood chimeras are people who have two different blood types, often a result of non-identical twins who shared a blood supply in the uterus.


Origin

The word chimera is believed to have come from Greek and Latin origins, the first modern English use arising in the second half of the 14th century. It derives from the Greek chímaira and Latin chimaera, meaning she-goat, but also the Greek cheimṓn and Latin hiems, meaning winter. Other usages akin to its origins are the Old Norse gymbr and English gimmer, meaning one-year-old ewe lamb (referring to one winter).

Derivative Words

Chimerical: Chimerical is an adjectival form of chimera, describing something that is wildly fanciful or imaginative.

Example: Children's books often contain chimerical ideas to stimulate the imagination, like a boy who can fly or a talking cat bigger than a house.

Chimeric: Chimeric is another adjectival form of the word chimera.

Example: When Columbus claimed that the earth was a sphere and he was to sail around the world, many viewed his notions as chimeric and believed he would fall off the edge of the earth.

Chimerism (Plural: Chimerisms): Chimerism is a noun used in biology that refers to the state of being a genetic chimera.

Example: When the child was born with both male and female parts, the doctors classified the hermaphroditic baby as a chimerism.

Similar Words

Mirage is a noun that refers to something illusory and unattainable, much like the wild imaginings of a chimera. The difference here, however, is that while a chimera is more a product of the imagination (something that cannot be attained because of its unrealistic qualities), a mirage is more of an optical effect (something that cannot be attained because it is just an illusion by appearance).

In Literature

From Jules Vern's Five Weeks in a Balloon

‘Africa is, at length, about to surrender the secret of her vast solitudes; a modern Oedipus is to give us the key to that enigma which the learned men of sixty centuries have not been able to decipher. In other days, to seek the sources of the Nile—fontes Nili quoerere—was regarded as a mad endeavor, a chimera that could not be realized.'

Here, the use of chimera is applied to express that the endeavor of finding the sources of the Nile was once a wildly fanciful idea, one that could not be realized in reality.

Mnemonic

  • A chimera is but a shimmer of reality
  • An idea that is wild and queer is really just a chimera.

Tags

Fantasy, Daydream, Illusion


Bring out the linguist in you! What is your own interpretation of chimera. Did you use chimera in a game? Provide an example sentence or a literary quote.