My Nordstedt's English-Swedish dictionary says the primary meaning is "figment of ones imagination". The other meaning seems to that mythological beast. Nothing is mentioned about any hybrid.
Since this is gonna be a fight over who's dictionary definition is the best, I'll simply end the battle before it even begins by quoting www.britannica.com
"Chimera
in Greek mythology, a fire-breathing female monster resembling a lion in the forepart, a goat in the middle, and a dragon behind. She devastated Caria and Lycia until she was slain by Bellerophon. In art the Chimera is usually represented as a lion with a goat's head in the middle of its back. The word is now used generally to denote a fantastic idea or figment of the imagination.
Chimera, or chimĖre, in architecture, is a term loosely used for any grotesque, fantastic, or imaginary beast used in decoration."
"chimaera
also spelled Chimera, also called GHOST SHARK, any of numerous cartilaginous fishes related to sharks and rays in the class Chondrichthyes but separated from them as the subclass (or sometimes class) Holocephali. Like sharks and rays, chimaeras have cartilaginous skeletons, and the males possess external reproductive organs (claspers) derived from the pelvic fins and used to introduce sperm into the body of the female. Unlike sharks and rays, chimaeras have a single external gill opening, covered by a flap as in the bony fishes, on each side of the body. Male chimaeras, unique among fishes, also possess a supplemental clasping organ, the tentaculum, on the forehead and in front of each pelvic fin.
Chimaeras are tapered fishes with large pectoral and pelvic fins, large eyes, and two dorsal fins, the first preceded by a sharp spine. They have slender tails, from which the name ratfish, applied to some, has been derived. There are about 28 species of chimaeras, ranging in length from about 60 to 200 centimetres (24 to 80 inches) and in colour from silvery to blackish. The species are placed in three families: Chimaeridae (including the species called rabbit fish), characterized by a rounded or cone-shaped snout; Callorhinchidae (elephant fishes), with an unusual, hoe-shaped, flexible snout; and Rhinochimaeridae (long-nosed chimaeras), with an extended, pointed snout.
Found in temperate to cold waters of all oceans, chimaeras range from rivers, estuaries, and coastal waters to oceanic depths of 2,500 metres (8,200 feet) or more. They are weak swimmers and are delicate when caught, dying quickly out of water. Their food consists of small fishes and invertebrates. Females lay large, elongated eggs protected by horny coverings. Chimaeras are edible and are sold as food in some areas. Their liver oil provides a useful lubricant for guns and fine instruments."
"chimera
also spelled CHIMAERA, in botany, a plant or plant part that is a mixture of two or more genetically different types of cells.
A chimera may be a 'graft hybrid,' a bud that in plant grafting appears at the junction of the scion and stock and contains tissues of both plants. Although such chimeras appeared adventitiously in times past, they were first seriously studied by the German botanist Hans Winkler in 1907. In his first experiments, black nightshade (Solanum nigrum) was grafted on tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), and at the nexus all the shoots were either of nightshade or of tomato except one; this, arising at the junction of the two tissues, had the characters of nightshade on one side and tomato on the other. Winkler called this shoot a chimera, because it was partly of one species and partly of another. In further experiments he gave certain of his graft hybrids special names. Another botanist, Erwin Baur, later provided evidence that two plants to which Winkler had given special names were built up of a core of tomato with a skin of nightshade one and two cell layers thick, respectively, and two others of a core of nightshade with skins of tomato one and two cell layers thick. Thus in a chimera the components maintain their identity but are arranged in a definite pattern at the growing point.
Chimeras may also arise by a mutation in cells of a growing region. The new kind of tissue may be conspicuously different from the old (as when it is colourless instead of being green), but far more commonly the difference is evident only on special investigation, as when the number of chromosomes is altered."
And finally, from Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary:
"Main Entry: chi…me…ra
Pronunciation: kI-'mir-&, k&-
Function: noun
Etymology: Latin chimaera, from Greek chimaira she-goat, chimera; akin to Old Norse gymbr yearling ewe, Greek cheimOn winter -- more at HIBERNATE
1 a capitalized : a fire-breathing she-monster in Greek mythology having a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail b : an imaginary monster compounded
of incongruous parts
2 : an illusion or fabrication of the mind; especially : an unrealizable dream
3 : an individual, organ, or part consisting of tissues of diverse genetic constitution"
I think we have at least two promising botanists in here, though...
Peter Isotalo
