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Webster 1913 Edition
Chimera
Chime′ra
,Noun.
pl.
Chimeras
(#)
. [L.
chimaera
a chimera (in sense 1), Gr. [GREEK] a she-goat, a chimera, fr. [GREEK] he-goat; cf. Icel. qymbr
a yearling ewe.] 1.
(Myth.)
A monster represented as vomiting flames, and as having the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a dragon.
“Dire chimeras and enchanted isles.” Milton.
2.
A vain, foolish, or incongruous fancy, or creature of the imagination;
as, the
. chimera
of an authorBurke.
Webster 1828 Edition
Chimera
CHIMERA
, n.1.
In fabulous history, a monster with three heads, that of a lion, of a goat, and of a dragon, vomiting flames. The foreparts of the body wee those of a lion, the middle was that of a goat, and the hinder parts were those of a dragon; supposed to represent a volcanic mountain in Lycia, whose top was the resort of lions, the middle, that of goats, and the foot, that of serpents. Hence,2.
In modern usage, a vain or idle fancy; a creature of the imagination, composed of contradictions or absurdities, that can have no existence except in thought.