camp

Meanings

Noun

• An outdoor place acting as temporary accommodation in tents or other temporary structures.
• An organised event, often taking place in tents or temporary accommodation.
• A base of a military group, not necessarily temporary.
• A single hut or shelter.
• The company or body of persons encamped.
• A group of people with the same strong ideals or political leanings.
• Campus
• A summer camp.
• A prison.
• A mound of earth in which potatoes and other vegetables are stored for protection against frost
• Conflict; battle.
• An affected, exaggerated or intentionally tasteless style.

Verb

• To live in a tent or similar temporary accommodation.
• To set up a camp.
• To afford rest or lodging for.
• To stay in an advantageous location in a video game, such as next to a power-up's spawning point or in order to guard an area.
• To fight; contend in battle or in any kind of contest; to strive with others in doing anything; compete.
• To wrangle; argue.

Adjective

• Theatrical; making exaggerated gestures.
• Ostentatiously effeminate.
• Intentionally tasteless or vulgar, self-parodying.

Origin

• From Middle English kampe ("battlefield, open space"), from Old English camp ("battle, contest, battlefield, open space"), from Proto-West Germanic *kamp ("open field where military exercises are held, level plain"), from Latin campus ("open field, level plain"), from Proto-Indo-European *kh₂em-. Reinforced circa 1520 by Middle French can, camp ("place where an army lodges temporarily"), from Old Northern French camp, from the same Latin (whence also French champ from Old French). Cognate with Old High German champf ("battle, struggle") (German Kampf), Old Norse kapp ("battle"), Old High German hamf ("paralysed, maimed, mutilated"). campus.
• The verb is from Middle English campen, from Old English campian, compian ("to fight, war against"), from Proto-West Germanic *kampōn ("to fight, do battle"), from *kamp, see above. Cognate with Dutch kampen, German kämpfen ("to struggle"), Danish kæmpe, Swedish kämpa.
• Unknown. Suggested origins include the 17th century French word camper, an assumed dialectal English word *camp or *kemp and a derivation from camp (n.) Believed to be from Polari, otherwise obscure.