Word of the Day: Chimera

Chimera
-Noun

Definition:
1. A wild illusion; foolish fantasy

2. mythological, fire-breathing monster, commonly represented with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail or any similarly grotesque monster having disparate parts, especially as depicted in decorative art.

3. Genetics . an organism composed of two or more genetically distinct tissues, as an organism that is partly male and partly female, or an artificially produced individual having tissues of several species.

Etymology:
late 14c., from O.Fr. chimere or directly from M.L. chimera, from L. Chimaera, from Gk. khimaira, a fabulous monster (with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail), supposedly personification of snow or winter; originally "year-old she-goat," from kheima "winter season" (see hibernation). Meaning "wild fantasy" in English first recorded 1580s (attested 13c. in French).

Quote with the word:
"The Word in the desert
Is most attacked by voices of temptation,
The crying shadow in the funeral dance,
The loud lament of the disconsolate chimera."
-T.S. Eliot (once again our poet pal strikes WOTD!)

I love this, one of my favorite words!

Good word, though I've never once heard it used in a sentence, organically. I'm going to try it though, next time someone spins me a yarn about them starting up their own business.

Ah.... chimera. Brings me back to my PhD days. My research helped the biochemists in my team synthesise the H3/INSL5 chimera peptide, which combined the A chain from INSL5 and the B chain from H3. Basically, it was a protein with the head of H3 and tail of INSL5. This meant we could now selectively activate the endogenous GPCR135 receptor pathways of H3 because the chimera allowed binding (from the INSL5 tail) to only GPCR135 instead of the other non-endogenous receptors H3 tended to whore around with.

Exciting times.

I used to be a Chemist, and this is the first time I've seen the word, "whore," appear in any description of a chemical reaction. :)

Ha! Yes. Bloody dry scientists and their refusal to allow poetic license when publishing papers. One of the reasons I gave it up. I mean, why would you want to patent a brand new chimera as H3/INSL5? Ugh. Geneticists are the fun ones. They get to name new mutants all sorts of cool things. In the genetic field of alcohol tolerance alone, there are 'barfly', 'tipsy' and 'cheapdate'.

What about 'stonedrunkandpassedoutonthefloor'? lol

Hahaha. 'oooohboythatoldmansurelookscutetonightgigglegiggle'

Anyway, what's the word today?