- chimera
- late 14c., from L. Chimaera, from Gk. chimaira, a fabulous monster (with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail), supposedly personification of snow or winter, orig. "year-old she-goat," from cheima "winter season." Meaning "wild fantasy" first recorded 1587.
"Beestis clepid chymeres, that han a part of ech beest, and suche ben not, no but oonly in opynyoun." [Wyclif, "Prologue"]
Related: Chimeric (1650s); chimerical (1630s).