camel
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈkæml̩/
ipa: /ˈkæm(ə)l/
rhymes: -æməl
Forms: form: camels
Etymology: From Middle English camel, through Old English camel and Old Northern French camel (Old French chamel, modern French chameau), from Latin camēlus, from Ancient Greek κάμηλος (kámēlos), from a Semitic source, ultimately from Proto-Semitic *gamal-; compare Arabic جَمَل (jamal), Hebrew גמל (gamál), Aramaic ܓܡܠܐ (gamlā), Coptic ϭⲁⲙⲟⲩⲗ (camoul). As a marine device, from Dutch. As an ethnic slur, short for camelfucker, camel jockey, etc.
Senses: examples: text: Returne our Mules and emptie Camels backe,
That we may trauell into Siria, […]
ref: c. 1587–1588 (date written), [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 I, scene ii:
text: Achilles! a drayman, a porter, a very camel.
ref: c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
text: As sometimes happens in countries of small civilisation, a leader arose from among the Arabs. None knew from where he sprang, and it was said that he had been a camel driver.
ref: 1907, W. Somerset Maugham, chapter IV, in The Explorer:
synonyms: word: oont
english: India (Anglo-Indian), Australia, colloquial
translation: India (Anglo-Indian), Australia, colloquial
word: ship of the desert
hypernyms: camelid
beast of burden
retromingent
coordinate_terms: bray
camlet
dromedarist
hajjan
hooshta
kajawah
mahmal
nose line
nose peg
sarwan
water bag
water cell
;
see also Category:en:Camelids
glosses: A mammalian beast of burden, much used in desert areas, of the genus Camelus.
glosses: A light brownish color, like that of a camel (also called camel brown).
examples: text: Nantucket Island is probably the only place in the United States where camels were put to work to solve the problem created by a sandbar. They were Marine camels, and like their live namesake, they were of a rugged construction and were designed to do very heavy work. In the shape of two large wooden boxes, the camels were flooded with sea water until they sank to a low level in the water; they were then arranged on each side of a heavily-loaded ship and drawn tightly together around the ship by means of heavy chains passing under the ship's hull. As the sea water was pumped out of the camels, they rose up to a higher level, raising the ship between them, and when fully emptied the camels and the ship were towed across the bar easily and safely because of the lesser draft. First used in Holland as early as 1688, the camels were invented by one M. M. Bakker, who named them for their great strength. The Dutch used them to carry large ships over the Pampas, which was a passage between two sandbanks in the Zyder Zee, opposite the mouth of the River Y, and about six miles from the city of Amsterdam. The Russians adopted the idea and used camels for carrying ships over the shoals at Neva...
ref: 1961 April, H. Flint Ranney, "Whaling and Nantucket–The Decline: The Civil War, Petition to Congress, and the Camels", Historic Nantucket, Vol. 8, No. 4, p. 59
synonyms: caisson
qualifier: typically in the plural
glosses: A vessel or tank, typically paired, used to make an object more buoyant.
glosses: A person of Middle Eastern origin.
examples: text: The fers and camel can reach all the cells of one colour. The others are more restricted; the dummy cannot move at all, and the commuter can only move back and forth between two cells.
ref: 2010 August 21, G. P. Jelliss, “Simple Chess Variants”, in Mayhematics, page 9:
topics: board-games
chess
games
glosses: A fairy chess piece that is moved three squares in one direction and one at right angles to that direction in a single move, leaping over any intervening pieces.
Derived terms: a camel is a horse designed by a committee
a camel is a horse made by a committee
anticamel
Arabian camel
Bactrian camel
cama
camelback
camelbacked
camel case
camel clutch
camel driver
cameleer
cameleopard
camelestrian
camel flu
camelfucker
camel-hair brush
camelhair
camel-hair
camelier
cameline
camelish
camelize
camel jockey
camel-jockey
Camel League
camellike
camelman
camel meat
cameloid
camelopard
camelpox
camel rider
camelry
camelshair
camel's hair
camel's nose
camel spider
camelthorn
camel through the eye of a needle
cameltoe
camel toe
dromedary camel
it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God
lower camel case
milch camel
milk camel
one-camel town
she-camel
sleep camel
the straw that broke the camel's back
upper camel case
whatever humps your camel
young camel
Related terms: camelopard