Answer zees question, pliis

[gothwalk]

[Poll #277083]

(with thanks to olethros for providing possible answers)

Comments

[ezrael.livejournal.com]

Webster's defines it as Chimeras.

[gothwalk.livejournal.com]

Isn't it a bit early for you to be up?

[ezrael.livejournal.com]

I haven't actually gone to sleep yet.

[elorie.livejournal.com]

Maybe so, but it's a Greek word, therefore the plural is chimerae.

[ezrael.livejournal.com]

I like Chimerae better, but for the 'recombined DNA creations' I think it would be Chimeras, just because the word has been adopted fully into english by this point.

I do like Chimerae better, and its the spelling I use. Webster's be damned.

[mcsnee.livejournal.com]

Actually, the Greek plural would be chimerai. Chimerae is the Latinized plural.

It shows up capitalized and with a second-syllable diphthong (Chimaera, -ae) in my Latin dictionary.

But as with any other borrowed word, you're free to use either the original-language plural or the standardized English -s plural.

And don't ever, ever let me see "chimerii" again, gothwalk.

[fornorald.livejournal.com]

well, that's true (has been a while since I took Greek) but "chimeras" just makes me twitch for some reason. English has non-standard plurals all over the place anyway...

[hisgreyeyes.livejournal.com]

While I actually think that 'chimera' just sounds better as the plural (one sheep and many sheep, one fish and many fish, one chimera and many chimera), I've only ever seen the plural written as 'chimeras'.

[forest.livejournal.com]

Are we talking about the deep sea fish, the organism or the fire breathing she-monster from Greek Mythology?

[gothwalk.livejournal.com]

I was using it as a generic term for creatures composed of recognisable parts of other creatures. I mean, that's a term that'll see daily use, right?

[phantom_wolfboy]

In whose house? I suspect that mine will see rather more use of the classic definition.

[bheansidhe.livejournal.com]

I too think it should be chimerae.. but I *know* it should be rat bastardy.

[mightywombat.livejournal.com]

Either chimerae or chimerai. Or, "fuck, there's two of them..."

[malinaldarose.livejournal.com]

Or, "fuck, there's two of them..."

This would, indeed, be the correct plural.

[bastun-ie.livejournal.com]

I like mightywombat's second answer best :-)

What's the collective noun, though?

[juuro.livejournal.com]

A confusion of chimerai.

[luis-mw.livejournal.com]

I have to go with the mightywombat :)

[(Anonymous)]

FWIW, the shorter OED says "chimerism (noun BIOLOGY) the state of being a chimera (sense 5); the occurrence of chimeras", so it goes with standard English construction. In case you are interested, sense 5 is "An organism whose cells are not all derived from the same zygote.".

dwm

[straif.livejournal.com]

More importantly, what is the venery of "Chimera"?

Extracted from www.m-w.com:
b : an imaginary monster compounded of incongruous parts

My vote is: "an incongruity of chimera"