# camp
## English
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kæmp/
** (General American, Canada, /æ/ raising) IPA: [kʰɛəmp] ~ [kʰeəmp]
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -æmp

### Etymology 1

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 *kh₂emp- (“to bend; crooked”). 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”). Doublet of campus and champ.
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 (“field, battlefield, battle”), see above. Cognate with Dutch kampen, German kämpfen (“to struggle”), Danish kæmpe, Swedish kämpa.

#### Noun

camp (countable and uncountable, plural camps)
* 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 concentration camp; gulag.
** 2013 June 18, Esther Felden, “Hell on earth”, in Deutsche Welle‎, archived from the original on 22 June 2015‎:Mr. Ahn Myong-Chol was a prison guard at Camp 22 in Hoeryong and a driver at the camps. He was there between 1990 and 1994. He is the one who reported that prisoners had been used for human experimentation inside the camps.
* A single hut or shelter.
    a hunter’s camp
* The company or body of persons encamped.
** 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter IX, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:The camp broke up with the confusion of a flight.
* A group of people with the same strong ideals or political leanings.
* (obsolete) An army.
** c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene iii:My Campe is like to Iulius Cæſars Hoſte, That neuer fought but had the victorie:
* (uncommon) Campus
* (informal) A summer camp.
* (prison slang) A prison.
** 2009, Nick Chandler, Jeanette Billings, Determined to Change: The Autobiography of Nick Chandler, page 184:Lantana is a sweet camp. It's an old hospital that has been converted to a drug treatment center for prisoners.
* (agriculture) A mound of earth in which potatoes and other vegetables are stored for protection against frost
    Synonyms: burrow, pie
* (British India) Anywhere that a colonist stayed when away from their permanent residence; such places collectively.
** 1889, Rudyard Kipling, “A Wayside Comedy”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 62:Then the Rains came, when no one could go into camp, and the Narkarra Road was washed away by the Kasun River, and in the cup-like pastures of Kashima the cattle waded knee-deep.
* (obsolete) Conflict; battle.

##### Derived terms

* autocamp
* auto camp
* band camp
* BarCamp
* base camp
* boot camp
* Bovington Camp
* break camp
* bushcamp
* Camp 1
* Camp 3
* Camp 7
* Camp 8
* Camp Aguinaldo
* camp-ball
* camp bed
* Camp Blessing
* camp collar
* campcraft
* Camp Douglas
* Camp Downes
* camper
* campery
* campestral
* camp fever
* campfire
* camp fire
* camp follower
* campful
* campground
* Camp Hill
* camping stove
* campism
* camplike
* campmaster
* campmate
* camp mother
* Camp One
* camporee
* campout
* camp oven
* Camp Pendleton North
* camp robber
* camp shirt
* camp site, campsite
* campstead, campsteading
* campstool
* camp stool
* campstove
* camp stove
* camptastic
* campward
* campwards
* cigarette camp
* concentration camp
* death camp
* dinner camp
* encamp
* encampment
* extermination camp
* fat camp
* fire camp
* fish camp
* flying camp
* freedom-camp
* freedom camp
* glamp
* handicamp
* holiday camp
* intercamp
* internment camp
* labor camp
* labour camp
* logging camp
* man camp
* minicamp
* motorcamp
* North Camp
* object camp
* orientation camp
* peace camp
* pitch camp
* portable stove
* POW camp
* prison camp
* prisoner-of-war camp
* rape camp
* reeducation camp
* re-education camp
* refugee camp
* Sanitary Camp
* Sciots Camp
* set up camp
* She-She-She Camp
* silence camp
* slave camp
* spawn camping
* spike camp
* squatter camp
* strike camp
* subcamp
* summer camp
* terrorist camp
* third camp
* timber camp
* town camp
* witchcamp
* workcamp
* work-camp
* work camp

##### Related terms

* campus
* champerty

##### Descendants

* → German: Camp
* → Irish: campa
* → Japanese: キャンプ (kyanpu)
* → Korean: 캠프 (kaempeu)
* → Malay: kem
* → Ottoman Turkish: قامپ
** Turkish: kamp
* → Scottish Gaelic: campa
* ⇒ Scottish Gaelic: campadh
* → Spanish: campo (semantic loan) (New Mexico)
* → Swahili: kambi
** → Taos: kòmpuʼúna
* → Thai: แคมป์ (kɛ́m)

##### Translations

Afrikaans: kamp
Albanian: kamp (sq) m
Apache:
Western Apache: gotah
Arabic: مُخَيِّم m (muḵayyim)
Hijazi Arabic: مُخَيَّم m (muḵayyam)
Armenian: ճամբար (hy) (čambar)
Azerbaijani: düşərgə (az), lager
Belarusian: ла́гер m (láhjer), ля́гер m (ljáhjer)
Bengali: শিবির (bn) (śibir)
Bulgarian: ла́гер (bg) m (láger)
Burmese: စခန်း (my) (ca.hkan:)
Catalan: campament (ca) m, càmping (ca) m
Chinese:
Mandarin: 安營 / 安营 (zh) (ānyíng), 露營 / 露营 (zh) (lùyíng), 營 / 营 (zh) (yíng)
Czech: tábor (cs) m
Danish: lejr n
Dutch: kamp (nl) n
Egyptian: (ꜥfꜣy)
Esperanto: kampadejo, tendaro (eo)
Estonian: laager (et), plats (et)
Faroese: lega f
Finnish: leiri (fi)
French: camp (fr) m
Galician: acampamento m, bivaque m, arraial m
Georgian: ბანაკი (banaḳi), ლაგერი (ka) (lageri)
German: Lager (de) n
Greek: καταυλισμός (el) m (katavlismós), κατασκήνωση (el) f (kataskínosi)
Hebrew: מַחֲנֶה (he) m (maḥané)
Hindi: शिविर (hi) m (śivir), कैंप (hi) m (ka͠ip)
Hungarian: tábor (hu)
Ido: kampeyo (io)
Indonesian: kamp (id)
Irish: campa m
Italian: campo (it) m, accampamento (it) m
Japanese: キャンプ (ja) (kyanpu), 幕営 (ja) (ばくえい, bakuei), 収容所 (ja) (しゅうようじょ, shūyōjo)
Kazakh: лагерь (lager)
Khmer: ជំរំ (km) (cumrum)
Korean: 캠프 (kaempeu), 수용소(收容所) (ko) (suyongso)
Kyrgyz: лагерь (ky) (lager)
Lao: ຄ້າຍ (lo) (khāi)
Latin: castra (la) n pl
Latvian: nometne f
Lithuanian: stovykla f
Macedonian: логор m (logor), камп m (kamp)
Malay: kem
Maori: houpani
Mon: ဒၞာဲဒပ်ပၞာန် (mnw), ဒၞာဲဒပ်
Mongolian:
Cyrillic: лагерь (mn) (lagerʹ), хүрээ (mn) (xüree)
Ngazidja Comorian: kampi
Norwegian:
Bokmål: leir m
Nynorsk: leir m
Pali: khandhāvāra m
Persian: اردوگاه (fa) (ordugâh), کمپ (fa) (kamp)
Polish: obóz (pl) m
Portuguese: acampamento (pt) m, camping (pt) m
Romanian: tabără (ro) f, lagăr (ro) n
Russian: ла́герь (ru) m (lágerʹ), та́бор (ru) m (tábor) (nowadays usually a Gypsy camp), стан (ru) m (stan)
Scottish Gaelic: campa m
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: та̑бор m, ло̑гор m
Roman: tȃbor (sh) m, lȏgor (sh) m
Slovak: tábor m
Slovene: kamp m, taborišče n
Spanish: campamento (es) m
Swahili: kambi (sw)
Swedish: läger (sv) n
Tagalog: limpuyok
Tajik: ӯрдугоҳ (tg) (ürdugoh), лагер (lager)
Taos: kòmpuʼúna
Thai: ค่าย (th) (kâai), แคมป์ (kɛ́m)
Turkish: kamp (tr)
Turkmen: lager
Ukrainian: та́бір m (tábir)
Urdu: کیمپ (kaimp)
Uyghur: لاگېر (lagër), لەشكەرگاھ (leshkergah)
Uzbek: lager (uz), qarorgoh (uz)
Welsh: gwersyll (cy) m
Yiddish: לאַגער m (lager) :
    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

#### Verb

camp (third-person singular simple present camps, present participle camping, simple past and past participle camped)
* To live in a tent or similar temporary accommodation.
    We're planning to camp in the field until Sunday.
** 2013, Philipp Meyer, The Son, Simon & Schuster, published 2014, page 73:A few hours before sundown we camped at a small playa lake sunk beneath the level of the grass.
* To set up a camp.
* (transitive) To afford rest or lodging for.
** c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene viii]:Had our great palace the capacity / To camp this host, we all would sup together.
* (intransitive, sports, video games) To stay in an advantageous location.
    Some players like to camp next to a power-up's spawning point.
** 1962, Coach & Athlete, page 18:Yet, even without the three second rule, where your big man could camp underneath and take those delightful “garbage” shots, there was little or no pivot offense, no cutting off the bucket.
* (transitive, video games) To stay beside (something) to gain an advantage.
    The easiest way to win on this map is to camp the double damage.
    Go and camp the flag for the win.
* (transitive, video games) Short for corpse camp.
* (intransitive, obsolete) To fight; contend in battle or in any kind of contest; to strive with others in doing anything; compete.
** 1562, Leigh, The Accedens of Armory ː
    Aristotle affirmeth that Rauens will gather together on sides, and campe and fight for victorie.
* (intransitive, obsolete) To wrangle; argue.

##### Derived terms

* campability
* campable
* camp down
* cample
* camp out
* spawn camp
* uncamp

##### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Etymology 2

Unknown. Suggested origins include the 17th century French word camper (“to put oneself in a pose”), an assumed dialectal English word *camp or *kemp (“rough, uncouth”) and a derivation from camp (n.) Believed to be from Polari, otherwise obscure.

#### Noun

camp (uncountable)
* An affected, exaggerated, or intentionally tasteless style.
** 1985 September 2, Joe Klein, quoting Douglas S. Cramer, “The Real Star of ‘Dynasty’”, in New York, page 34:We walk a fine line, just this side of camp. Careful calculations are made. We sense that while it might be wonderful for Krystle and Alexis to have a catfight in a koi pond, it would be inappropriate for Joan to smack Linda with a koi.
** 1996 March 31, Trip Gabriel, “Showgirls' Crawls Back As High Camp at Midnight”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:Why would any Hollywood studio encourage a film's transformation into camp, in effect joining in the mockery of its own product? MGM declined to comment.

##### Derived terms

* high camp
* low camp

##### Translations
#### Adjective

camp (comparative camper, superlative campest)
* Theatrical; making exaggerated gestures.
* (of a man) Ostentatiously effeminate.
** 2007, David Rothwell, Dictionary of Homonyms, Wordsworth Editions, →ISBN, page 88:More recently the word has become colloquial English for either implying that someone is a homosexual (‘he's very camp’), or for describing rather outre behaviour […]
** 2014, Sarah Lotz, The Three, Hachette UK, →ISBN:And to be honest, in the illustration Mr Tumnus does look as camp as fuck with his little scarf tied jauntily around his neck. I suppose it isn't outside the realms of possibility that he'd just been off cottaging with some centaurs in the forest. God.
* Intentionally tasteless or vulgar, self-parodying.
** 2002, Georges-Claude Guilbert, Madonna as Postmodern Myth, McFarland, →ISBN, page 123:In Saturday Night Live, Madonna also unsurprisingly played Princess Diana, Marilyn Monroe, and a Joan Collins clone, all in a very camp way. As John Dean writes: “U.S. rock has a ruling camp queen with Madonna.”
** 2024 April 5, Alexis Petridis, “Abba, cabaret and smug marionettes: the 1974 Eurovision song contest reviewed!”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:Here is Eurovision from a time before anyone watched it for camp value – you can’t imagine any gay bar in 1974 clearing its schedules to screen this; a Eurovision that takes itself rather seriously, a brief appearance by the Wombles notwithstanding.

##### Derived terms

* camp as a row of tents
* campish
* camp it up
* camply
* campness
* campy
* uncamp

##### Translations
#### Verb

camp (third-person singular simple present camps, present participle camping, simple past and past participle camped)
* To behave in a camp manner; camp it up.
** 1988 April 9, Gordon Gottlieb, “The Urban Gay Camp and Croon”, in Gay Community News, page 11:Oster and his his two co-stars, Jamie MacKenzie and Bill Martel, boogie and bop, sway and swish, camp and croon through tightly worked production numbers addressing a range of serious (and not so serious) issues that middle class, urban gay men come up against.

#### Descendants

* → Finnish: camp
* → French: camp
* → Spanish: camp

### Etymology 3

From Spanish campo (“countryside”).

#### Noun

camp (countable and uncountable, plural camps)
* (slang, Falkland Islands) The areas of the Falkland Islands situated outside the capital and largest settlement, Stanley.
* An electoral constituency of the legislative assembly of the Falkland Islands that composes of all territory more than 3.5 miles from the spire of the Christ Church Cathedral in Stanley.

### See also

* aide-de-camp

### References

* ↑ Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “camp”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
* ↑ Michael Quinion, "Camp" in: World Wide Words, 2003
* ↑ listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)
* ↑ Reuben, David R. (1969) chapter 8, in Everything you always wanted to know about sex but were too afraid to ask, New York: David McKay Company, Inc., published 1970, →LCCN, Homosexuals have their own language?, page 146: “CAMP: be obviously and obnoxiously homosexual”

### Anagrams

* CAPM, CPAM

## Catalan
### Etymology

Inherited from Latin campus (compare Occitan camp, French champ, Spanish campo), from Proto-Indo-European *kh₂emp- (“to bend, curve”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: (Central) [ˈkam]
* IPA: (Balearic, Valencia) [ˈkamp]
* Audio:(file)

### Noun

camp m (plural camps)
* field (open area of land)
    Synonym: terreny
* camp (temporary outdoor accommodation)
    Synonym: campament
* field of study, discipline
    Synonym: disciplina
* (physics) field

#### Derived terms

* acampar
* camp d'extermini
* camp de batalla
* camp de concentració
* Camp de Túria
* camp elèctric
* camp magnètic
* campament
* fotre el camp

#### Related terms

* campanya
* campestre
* campió

### References

* “camp” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

## Chinese
### Etymology 1

From English camp.

#### Pronunciation

* Cantonese (Jyutping): kem$^1$
* Cantonese
** (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
*** Jyutping: kem$^1$
*** Cantonese Pinyin: kem$^1$
*** Guangdong Romanization: kém$^1$
*** Sinological IPA : /kʰɛːm⁵⁵/

#### Noun

camp
* (Hong Kong Cantonese) camp (organised event); summer camp

#### See also

* ocamp

### Etymology 2

From English camp.

#### Pronunciation

* Cantonese (Jyutping): kem$^1$
* Cantonese
** (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
*** Jyutping: kem$^1$
*** Cantonese Pinyin: kem$^1$
*** Guangdong Romanization: kém$^1$
*** Sinological IPA : /kʰɛːm⁵⁵/

#### Adjective

camp
* (Hong Kong Cantonese) camp (effeminate)

##### Synonyms

| Variety | Location | Words |
| Formal (Written Standard Chinese) | Formal (Written Standard Chinese) | 娘娘腔 |
| Northeastern Mandarin | Beijing | 母裡母氣 |
| Northeastern Mandarin | Taiwan | 娘娘腔, 娘炮 |
| Central Plains Mandarin | Xuzhou | 女裡女氣 |
| Southwestern Mandarin | Guiyang | 母聲母氣 |
| Cantonese | Guangzhou | 乸型, 婆乸型, 女人型, 女人士 |
| Cantonese | Hong Kong | 乸型, 乸, camp |
| Gan | Lichuan | 娘娘腔 |
| Hakka | Meixian | 半婦人 |
| Northern Min | Jian'ou | 阿娘相 |
| Eastern Min | Fuzhou | 母相 |
| Southern Min | Xiamen | 查某體 |
| Southern Min | Quanzhou | 查某體 |
| Southern Min | Zhangzhou | 查某體, 軟母 |
| Southern Min | Tainan | 查某體 |
| Southern Min | Manila (Hokkien) | 查某體 |
| Wu | Shanghai | 娘娘腔 |
| Wu | Hangzhou | 娘娘腔 |

### References

* Bauer, Robert S. (2021) ABC Cantonese-English Comprehensive Dictionary, Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, →ISBN, page 538

## Franco-Provençal
### Etymology

Borrowed from French camp.

### Noun

camp m (plural camps) (ORB, broad)
* camp

#### Derived terms

* campar

### References

* camp in DicoFranPro: Dictionnaire Français/Francoprovençal – on dicofranpro.llm.umontreal.ca
* camp in Lo trèsor Arpitan – on arpitan.eu

## French
### Etymology 1

Probably from a Norman or Picard word equivalent to French champ (itself inherited from Old French champ and Latin), from Old Northern French camp, from Latin campus, or alternatively from Occitan camp, Old Occitan camp, possibly Italian campo. Doublet of campus and champ.

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kɑ̃/
* Homophones: Caen, quand, quant

#### Noun

camp m (plural camps)
* camp (An outdoor place acting as temporary accommodation in tents or other temporary structures.)
    Il a dressé son camp de l'autre côté de la rivière. ― He has erected his camp on the other side of the river.
* camp (Semi-temporary accommodation)
    Un camp de concentration. ― A concentration camp.
* camp (A base of a military group, not necessarily temporary)
    Les camps ennemis. ― The enemy camps.
* camp (A group of people with the same ideals or political leanings, strongly supported.)
    Ce pays est partagé en deux camps. ― This country is divided into two camps.
* camp, summer camp
    Un camp de vacances. ― A summer camp. (idiomatic; French usage does not specify a season)

##### Derived terms

* aide de camp
* but contre son camp
* camp de concentration
* camp de mort
* camp de travail
* camp d’extermination
* camp volant
* feu de camp
* ficher le camp
* foutre le camp
* lever le camp
* lit de camp
* maréchal de camp
* tout fout le camp

##### Related terms

* camper
* campement
* camping
* champ

### Etymology 2

Borrowed from English camp.

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kɑ̃p/, /kamp/

#### Adjective

camp (invariable)
* camp (Intentionally tasteless or vulgar, self-parodying, affected, exaggerated)
    Une folle camp ne peut jamais en faire trop.(please add an English translation of this usage example)

#### Noun

camp m (uncountable)
* campness; An affected, exaggerated or intentionally tasteless style
    La tactique des Sœurs dans la lutte contre le sida repose sur une stratégie politique : une utilisation du camp, une réappropriation revendiquée de l’efféminement, de la visibilité homosexuelle et de la follitude qui visent à désarmer les injonctions morales pesant sur la sexualité – sociales, religieuses, liées au sexe, au genre, aux pratiques sexuelles…

##### Synonyms

* follitude

### Further reading

* “camp”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

## Middle English
### Etymology 1

From Old English campian.

#### Verb

camp
* Alternative form of campen

### Etymology 2

From Old Norse kampr.

#### Adjective

camp
* Alternative form of kempe (“shaggy”)

## Norman
### Alternative forms

* champ

### Etymology

From Old Northern French camp (compare Old French champ), from Latin campus, from Proto-Indo-European *kamp- (“to bend; crooked”). Compare French champ.

### Noun

camp m (plural camps)
* (Guernsey) field

## Old English
### Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *kamp, from Latin campus.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kɑmp/

### Noun

camp m
* combat

#### Declension

Strong a-stem:

#### Derived terms

* campdōm
* campealdor
* campġefēra
* camphād
* camplīċ
* camprǣden
* campstede
* campung
* campwǣpen
* campwudu
* campwered

### Noun

camp n
* an enclosed piece of land

#### Descendants

* Middle English: kampe, komp, comp (Early Middle English, West Midlands)
** English: camp (see there for further descendants)
** Scots: camp

## Old French
### Noun

camp oblique singular, m (oblique plural cans, nominative singular cans, nominative plural camp)
* Alternative form of champ (“field”)

## Welsh
### Etymology

From Middle Welsh camp, from Proto-Brythonic *kamp, from Latin campus, from the senses of "field of action, scope, opportunity, or produce of a field". Doublet of Caint (“Kent”) and siampên (“champagne”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kamp/

### Noun

camp f (plural campau)
* feat, accomplishment
    Synonym: gorchest
* sport, contest

#### Derived terms

* campfa (“gymnasium, stadium”)
* campus (“excellent, splendid”)
* campwaith (“masterpiece”)
* campwr (“champion”)

### Mutation

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh. All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.