English
camp
Camp comes from Middle English kampe ‘battlefield, open space’, and goes back to Latin campus.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcampus‘open field’
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*kamp‘open field where military exercises are held’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150camp‘battle’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500kampe‘battlefield’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1587–1588camp
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcampus‘open field’
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*kamp‘open field where military exercises are held’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150camp‘battle’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500kampe‘battlefield’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1587–1588camp
Earliest quotation: c. 1587–1588, Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […]: “My Campe is like to Iulius Cæſars Hoſte, That…”
The story
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).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *kh₂emp- ‘to bend’
through Latin campus ‘open field, level plain’
through Proto-West Germanic *kamp ‘open field where military exercises are held,…’
Another origin of camp
- Frenchc. 1600–presentcamper‘to put oneself in a pose’disputed
- Englishtodaycamp
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, but otherwise obscure.disputed Scholars disagree here; the competing view is quoted as the source gives it.
Another origin of camp
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kh₂ém-po-suncertain
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*kamposuncertain
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcampus‘wild field’
- Old Spanishc. 950–1500campo‘field, open plain’
- Spanishc. 1500–presentsame form‘countryside’
- Englishtodaycamp
Today it means
noun An outdoor place acting as temporary accommodation in tents or other simple structures.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin campus / camp