神話裡的怪獸，以及一整類的混合生物
這一組就是核心畫面本身，先是那一隻，再擴大成一整類。
noun · C1
In Greek stories, a monster that breathes fire and is built from parts of three animals: the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and a snake for a tail.
奇美拉（希臘神話中的噴火怪獸）
核心畫面
Hold the monster in your head first. A lion's head at the front, a goat in the middle, a snake for a tail, and fire coming out of its mouth. Two things about it matter more than the rest: it is made of parts that do not belong together, and it never existed. Every other use of the word can be read as one of those two facts carried somewhere new.
先把那隻怪獸記起來。前面是獅子的頭，中間是山羊的身體，尾巴是一條蛇，嘴裡還噴著火。牠身上有兩件事特別重要。一是牠由不…更多收起
先把那隻怪獸記起來。前面是獅子的頭，中間是山羊的身體，尾巴是一條蛇，嘴裡還噴著火。牠身上有兩件事特別重要。一是牠由不搭調的零件拼起來。二是牠根本不存在。這個字後來的每一個用法，都可以想成是把這兩件事之一帶到新的地方去用：談想法時用「不存在」，談東西時用「拼起來」。From the word’s history
English chimera comes through French chimere from Latin Chimaera, and that from Ancient Greek Khimaira, which literally means she-goat. The monster was named after the goat part of its own body.
英文的 chimera 經由法文 chimère 來自拉丁文 Chimaera，再往前是古希臘文 Khímaira，字面意思是「母山羊」。也就是說，這隻怪獸是用牠身上的山羊那一段來命名的。名字本身就已經在提醒你：牠是由零件組成的。
Wiktionary (kaikki) etymology supplied in this evidence packet, source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:632465522:44325
Three branches
因為牠不存在：不可能的空想
這一組抓住的是怪獸的另一半事實：牠從來沒有存在過。所以這個字被拿來說那些聽起來很實在、其實不可能的東西。
noun · C2
Formal. A hope, plan or idea that feels solid to the person holding it but can never actually exist or come true.
幻想；不可能實現的空想
因為牠是拼起來的：混合體
這一組抓住的是怪獸的身體：零件來自不同地方，而且接縫看得見。一邊用在日常東西上當比喻，一邊在生物學裡變回字面。
noun · C2
Something made out of parts that do not belong together, so that it works as one thing but is clearly a mixture of several very different ones.
由不相稱的部分拼成的東西