Tuesday, May 06, 2008

365 New Words a Year [Merriam Webster] (Workman Publishing 9/10/7: chimera

chimera n 1: an imaginary monster made up of incongruous parts 2: an illusion or fabrication of the mind; especially : an impossible dream.
The M-W website lists our definition 1 as 1b, 1a being "capitalized : a fire-breathing she-monster in Greek mythology having a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail". Instead of "impossible dream" in 2 it uses "unrealizable" (which must mean we can't sing "To dream the chimera"), and offers a third definition: "an individual, organ, or part consisting of tissues of diverse genetic constitution".

The calendar page's DYK refers to the Greek-mythological creature, who "terrorized the people of Lycia until their king, Iobates, asked the hero Bellerophon to slay her. Iobates had an ulteriaor motive: he knew that his son-in-law wanted Bellerophon killed, and he was sure the Chimera would do the job. But Bellerophon called in Pegasus, the winged horse, and brought the Chimera down from above." [ed note: I always thought this was pronounced 'SHIM-ir-uh'--guess I was wrong.] Rating 9/10 men of La Mancha
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A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood. --Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self-Reliance"