Is there a notion of polynomial ring in "one half variable"? Let $C$ be the category of commutative rings.

Is there a functor $F :C \to C$ such that $F(F(R)) \cong R[X]$ for every commutative ring $R$ ?

(Here, we may assume those isomorphisms to be natural in $R$, if needed).
I tried to see what $F(\mathbb Z)$ or $F(k)$ (for a field $k$) should be, but I cannot come up with a contradiction to disprove the existence of $F$. On the other hand, I tried to build such an $F$, without success. I already asked this question (mostly out of curiosity) on MSE last year, but no answer was found.
Some comments however suggest that the existence might involve the axiom of choice, or that requiring $F$ to preserve limits and filtered colimits could be useful.
 A: I don't know how to answer the question as stated, but I believe that by strengthening the question a bit we can see that there does not exist a "reasonable" notion of "polyonomial ring in one-half variable" (unless perhaps we start thinking about enlarging our category or something). That is, let me address the following:

Modified question: Let $k$ be a commutative ring. Does there exist a functor $F: CAlg_k \to CAlg_k$ and a natural transformation $\iota: Id \Rightarrow F$ such that $F(F(A))$ is naturally isomorphic to $A[x]$ and such that the composite $A \xrightarrow{\iota_A} F(A) \xrightarrow{\iota_{F(A)}} F(F(A)) = A[x]$ is identified under this isomorphism with the usual map $A \to A[x]$?

It seems to me that this is an extremely minimial, reasonable additional property to ask of a construction deserving the name "polynomial algebra in one half variable". It would be nice to eventually dispense with it, but I hope to shed some light on the original question by adding the assumption of the existence of $\iota$.

Answer to Modified Question: No, there is no such functor $F$ and natural transformation $\iota$, at least when $k$ is a field. For if there were, then since the composite $F(k) \to k[x] \to F(k)[x]$ has a retract given by evaluation at zero, it would be the case that $F(k)$ is a retract of $k[x]$. There are no retracts of $k[x]$  besides $F(k) = k$ or $F(k) = k[x]$, neither of which is compatible with $F^2(k) \cong k[x]$ and $F^4(k) \cong k[x,y]$.

EDIT: I was suddenly seized with doubt, so here's a proof of the fact I just used:
Fact: Let $k$ be a field. Let $k \subseteq R \subseteq k[x]$ be a $k$-algebra which is a retract of the $k$-algebra $k[x]$. Then either $R = k$ or $R = k[x]$.
Proof: Let $\pi: k[x] \to R$ be the retraction map, and let $p = \pi(x) \in R \subseteq k[x]$ be the image of $x \in k[x]$ under $\pi$. Since $k[x]$ is a PID, the kernel of $\pi$ is a principal ideal, of the form $(f(x))$ for some $f(x) \in k[x]$. Thus we have $f(p) = 0$. By the following lemma, this implies either that $p \in k$ (in which case $R = k$) or else that $f(x) = 0$ (in which case $R = k[x]$).
Lemma: Let $k$ be a commutative ring, and let $p(x) \in k[x]$ be a polynomial. Suppose that the leading coefficient of $p(x)$ is a non-zero-divisor in $k$. Suppose that $p(x)$ is algebraic over $k$, i.e. that $f(p(x)) = 0$ for some $f(y) \in k[y] \setminus \{0\}$. Then $p(x) \in k$ is a degree-zero polynomial.
Proof: Suppose for contradiction that $\deg p(x) \geq 1$. Then the leading coefficient of $f(y)$ is $a b^n$ where $a$ is the leading coefficient of $f(y)$ and $b$ is the leading coefficient of $p(x)$ (and $n = \deg f$). This leading coefficient vanishes by hypothesis, so that $b$ is a zero-divisor in $k$, contrary to hypothesis. Therefore $\deg p(x) = 0$ as claimed.
