This week’s theme
Eponyms

This week’s words
Gavroche
Bechdel test
chimerize
grangousier
lexiphanic

---

A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(KY/KI-muh-ryz)

MEANING:

verb tr.: To form something from parts that are very different.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Chimera, a fire-breathing female monster in Greek mythology who had a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a serpent’s tail. From Greek khimaira (she-goat), ultimately from the Indo-European root ghei- (winter), which also gave us chimera (literally, a female animal that is one winter or one year old), hibernate, and the Himalayas, from Sanskrit him (snow) + alaya (abode). Earliest documented use: 1651.

USAGE:

“Taking them all into me, I chimerized myself, a multiple of all these creatures passing through the gateway of my body to the realm above.”
J.G. Ballard; The Unlimited Dream Company; Liveright; 2013.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: