The story you may have heardWiktionary and the extracted draft state flatly that chameleon is 'ultimately a calque' of Akkadian nēšu ša qaqqari. It is an attractive proposal by Assyriologists (Sjöberg, George), resting on the exact match of 'lion' + 'ground'. Greek etymological dictionaries still treat the word as a native Greek compound, and no route of transmission is documented.