Chameleon
תִּנְשֶׁ֫מֶתStrong’s H8580tanshemet (tan-she-met)
Appears in 3 verses of the Old Testament
In short
Tanshemet is the Hebrew word usually translated “barn owl” and “chameleon”. It appears in 3 verses of the Old Testament.
“And the swan, and the pelican, and the gier eagle,”
Meaning
- An unclean animal of some kindan unclean bird · an unclean lizard · perhaps an extinct lizard or bird, exact meaning unknown
How it's translated
- the barn owl 1
- and the chameleon 1
- and the barn owl 1
Word-by-word English from the STEPBible tagged text.
Where it's used most
- Leviticus 2
- Deuteronomy 1
2 books in all.
Explore in Scripture
Hebrew dictionary
תִּנְשֶׁ֫מֶת tanshemet · chameleon
1) an unclean animal of some kind 1a) an unclean bird 1a1) perhaps the ibis, water-hen, species of owl, barn owl 1b) an unclean lizard 1b1) perhaps the chameleon 1c) perhaps an extinct lizard or bird, exact meaning unknown
From STEPBible’s Hebrew lexicon (based on Brown-Driver-Briggs).
Webster's 1828 Dictionary
How the English word “chameleon” was understood when the King James Version was still the common Bible of English readers.
CHAMELEON, noun
An animal of the genus Lacerta, or lizard, with a naked body, a tail and four feet. The body is six or seven inches long, and the tail five inches; with this it clings to the branches of trees. The skin is cold to the touch, and contains small grains or eminences, of a bluish gray color, in the shade, but in the light of the sun, all parts of the body become of a grayish brown, or tawny color. It is a native of Africa and Asia.
Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). Verse references are checked against the KJV. Read the full entry.
Verses are from the King James Version. Word meanings come from the original Hebrew, not from any one translation.