Each week The Sun's John McIntyre presents a relatively obscure but evocative word with which you may not be familiar, another brick to add to the wall of your vocabulary. This week's word:
CHIMERA
Last week I wrote that the search for absolute certainty about grammar and usage is a chimera—an illusion, an impossible fantasy.
The word (pronounced kye-MIR-uh or kuh-MIR-uh) comes from the Greek chimaira, "she-goat." You will recall the Chimera of classical mythology, the fire-vomiting monster with the body of a goat, the head of a lion, and the tail of a serpent. King Iobates of Lycia thought to get rid of Bellerophon by sending him to kill the Chimera, which the hero accomplished with the aid of Pegasus.
Chimera became a generic word for any monster combined of miscellaneous parts, and today in biology it is the term for an organism with tissues of different genetic origin.
The "wild fantasy" sense of the word appeared in English in the 1580s, a borrowing from the French, and has taken hold.
Example: From a 2000 sports column by John McClain in the Houston Chronicle: "It makes small difference to the nation whether we have a liberal or a neocon in charge, judging from the 50-50 vote spread. And with Republicans voting along with Democrats on many key issues, the two-party system is a chimera, a show for the masses."