| 释义 |
▪ I. chameleon|kəˈmiːlɪən|
Forms: (4 gamelos, camle), 4–9 camelion, 6 chamælion, camallian, chamelæon), 7 camelian, 6–9 chamelion, cameleon, chamæleon, 6– chameleon. See also camelion, camle.
[a. L. chamæleon, a. Gr. χαµαιλέων the chameleon, f. χαµαί on the ground, dwarf + λέων a lion. The usual spelling down to the present century was camelion; cameleon being also common after 1700; in senses 3, 4 chamæleon is now frequent.]
1. A saurian reptile of the genus Chamæleo, family Chamæleonidæ, small lizard-like creatures, distinguished by a prehensile tail, long tongue, eyes moving independently, and covered each with a single circular eyelid, but esp. by their power of changing the colour of the skin, ‘varying through different shades of yellow, red, gray, brown, and dull inky blue’ (Carpenter Zoology 1847). From their inanimate appearance, and power of existing for long periods without food, they were formerly supposed to live on air. These attributes made the name famous and familiar to many who knew nothing else of the animal.
1340Ayenb. 62 Ase þe gamelos þet leueþ by þe eyr and naȝt ne heþ ine his roppes bote wynd, and heþ eche manere colour þet ne heþ non his oȝen. 1393Gower Conf. I. 133 Lich unto the camelion, Whiche upon every sondry hewe That he beholt he mote newe His colour. c1400Mandeville xxviii. 289 Manye Camles..He may chaunge him in to alle maner of coloures that him list, saf only in to red and white. 1547–64Bauldwin Mor. Philos. (Palfr.) vii. 8 As a camelion hath all colors save white, so hath a flatterer all points save honestie. 1555Eden Decades W. Ind. (Arb.) 122 A straunge beast..a kynd of Chameleon. 1600Rowlands Lett. Humours Blood xvii. 23 Can men feede like Camelions, on the ayer? 1602Shakes. Ham. iii. ii. 98 King. How fares our Cosin Hamlet? Ham. Excellent Ifaith, of the Camelions dish: I eate the Ayre promise-cramm'd. 1626Bacon Sylva §360 A Chamelion is a Creature about the Bignesse of an Ordinary Lizard.. His Tongue of a marvellous Length in respect of his Body. 1648Hunting of Fox 45 Camelions, which change with every object. a1700Dryden (J.) The thin chameleon, fed with air, receives The colour of the thing to which he cleaves. 1727Pope Th. on Var. Subj. in Swift's Wks. 1755 II. i. 224 The camelion, who is said to feed upon nothing but air, hath of all animals the nimblest tongue. 1786tr. Beckford's Vathek (1868) 38 Carathis..like a chameleon, could assume all possible colours. 1820Shelley Prom. Unb. iv. i. 483 As a lover or a cameleon Grows like what it looks upon. 1840Dickens Old C. Shop 166 The..meagre aspect of the place would have killed a chameleon.
2. fig. (esp. = inconstant or variable person.)
1586Jas. VI in Ellis Orig. Lett. i. 224 III. 21, I praye you not to takk me to be a Camelion. 1591Shakes. Two Gent. ii. i. 178 Though the Cameleon Loue can feed on the ayre. 1606Dekker Sev. Sins i. (Arb.) 13 The Politick Bankrupt is..a Cameleon, that can put himselfe into all colours. 1616Bullokar s.v., Men that are inconstant and fickle are sometimes called Chameleons. 1797Godwin Enquirer i. v. 33, I find myself a sort of intellectual camelion. 1866Motley Dutch Rep. ii. i. 127 He was a chameleon to the hand which fed him. He coloured himself, as it were, with the King's character.
3. Bot. The name of two plants: white chameleon, Carlina gummifera; black chameleon, Cardopatium corymbosum.
1551Turner Herbal i. H iv a, It hath leues of chameleon, or blacker then the whyte thystel and thycker. 1578Lyte Dodoens iv. lvii. 517 Of the Thistel Chameleon..Chamæleon is of two sortes, the white and the blacke. 1601Holland Pliny II. 124 The reason why this herb is named Chamæleon, is by occasion of the variable leaues which it beareth. 1673Ray Journ. Low C. (1738) II. 194 The black Chamælion with its handsome blue colour'd tops. 1712tr. Pomet's Hist. Drugs I. 41 The White Chameleon or Little Chardon.
4. Astron. One of the southern circumpolar constellations, lying between Apus and Mensa.
1835Penny Cycl. IV. 66/2 The following is the list of Bayer's constellations..Hydrus, Chameleon, Apis.
5. Chem. mineral chameleon or chameleon mineral [cf. F. caméléon minéral], a name given to manganate of potassium (K2MnO4), the solution of which in water changes colour, on exposure to the air, from deep green to deep purple, owing to the formation of the permanganate (KMnO4).
1816Accum Chem. Tests (1818) 461 The cameleon is evidently formed of potash and oxide of manganese. 1869Roscoe Elem. Chem. 234 Hence its common name of mineral chamelion. 1873Williamson Chem. (ed. 3) §194 This change of colour obtained for the salt the name mineral chameleon.
6. attrib. and Comb.
a. simple attrib., as chameleon fare, chameleon hue.
b. quasi-adj. Resembling the chameleon, chameleon-like.
1687Dryden Hind & P. iii. 788 Conscience is then your plea..But yours is much of the cameleon hue, To change the dye with every different view. 1793Holcroft tr. Lavater's Physiogn. xxix. 143 Such cameleon minds can be at one moment great, at another contemptible. 1837Hawthorne Twice Told T. (1842) 419 A chameleon spirit, with no hue of its own. 1840Hood Kilmansegg xxiii, Her very first draught of vital air, It was not the common chameleon fare. 1856Miss Mulock J. Halifax 231 Her chameleon power of seizing and sunning herself in the delight of the moment.
c. Comb., as chameleon fly, a dipterous insect, Stratiomys chamæleon; chameleon grass, the striped variety of Phalaris arundinacea or other grasses; chameleon moth, a S. African noctuid moth, Actæa chamæleon, of extreme variability in colour; chameleon silk, tulle (see quots.). Also, chameleon-like.
1598Gerard Herbal i. xix. §2. 25 Gramen striatum, or Gramen pictum: in English the Furrowed grasse, the white Chameleon grasse, or straked grasse. 1802Bingley Anim. Biog. (1813) III. 319 The chamæleon fly..is one of our most common two-winged insects. 1848in T. Graham Chem. Rep. & Mem. 230 The shot silk stuffs known as chameleon silks. 1896Daily News 14 Nov. 6/5 One of the latest novelties in ball dresses is the chameleon tulle, composed of veils of different colours laid over each other.
▪ II. chameleon, v. nonce-wd.
[f. prec. n.]
trans. To cause to change its hue like a chameleon.
1885G. Meredith Diana I. i. 18 This lady did not ‘chameleon’ her pen from the colour of her audience. |