camouflage

Meanings

Noun

• A disguise or covering up.
• The act of disguising.
• The use of natural or artificial material on personnel, objects, or tactical positions with the aim of confusing, misleading, or evading the enemy.
• A pattern on clothing consisting of irregularly shaped patches that are either greenish/brownish, brownish/whitish, or bluish/whitish, as used by ground combat forces.
• Resemblance of an organism to its surroundings for avoiding detection.
• Clothes made from camouflage fabric, for concealment in combat or hunting.

Verb

• To hide or disguise something by covering it up or changing the way it looks.

Origin

• Borrowed from French camouflage, from camoufler, alteration (due to camouflet) of Italian camuffare, from ca- (from Italian capo) + muffare, from Medieval Latin muffula. This Medieval Latin, from which there is also English muffle, is either derived from a Frankish *molfell from *mol (akin to Old High German molawēn, Middle High German molwic) + *fell, from Proto-Germanic *fellą, or, an alternate etymology traces it to a Frankish *muffël composed of *mauwu from Proto-Germanic *mawwō + *fell from Proto-Germanic *fellą.