英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

cameleon (n.)[cameleon 词源字典]: obsolete form of chameleon.[cameleon etymology, cameleon origin, 英语词源]
camellia (n.): 1753, named by Linnæus from Latinized form of Georg Joseph Kamel (1661-1706), Moravian-born Jesuit who described the flora of the island of Luzon, + abstract noun ending -ia.
Camelot (n.): a name first found in medieval French romances; it corresponds to Latin Camuladonum, the Roman forerunner of Colchester, which was an impressive ruin in the Middle Ages. But Malory identifies it with Winchester and Elizabethans tended to see it as Cadbury Castle, an Iron Age hill fort near Glastonbury.
Camembert (n.): type of soft, rich cheese, 1878, from name of village near Argentan, Normandy, where it originally was made. The place name is Medieval Latin Campus Maimberti "field of Maimbert" (a West Germanic personal name).
cameo (n.): early 15c., kaadmaheu, camew, chamehieux and many other spellings (from early 13c. in Anglo-Latin), "carved precious stone with two layers of colors," from Old French camaieu and directly from Medieval Latin cammaeus, which is of unknown origin, perhaps ultimately from Arabic qamaa'il "flower buds," or Persian chumahan "agate." Transferred sense of "small character or part that stands out from other minor parts" in a play, etc., is from 1928, from earlier meaning "short literary sketch or portrait" (1851), a transferred sense from cameo silhouettes.
camera (n.): 1708, "vaulted building," from Latin camera "vaulted room" (source of Italian camera, Spanish camara, French chambre), from Greek kamara "vaulted chamber."

The word also was used early 18c. as a short form of Modern Latin camera obscura "dark chamber" (a black box with a lens that could project images of external objects), contrasted with camera lucida (Latin for "light chamber"), which uses prisms to produce on paper beneath the instrument an image, which can be traced. It became the word for "picture-taking device" when modern photography began, c. 1840 (extended to television filming devices 1928). Camera-shy is attested from 1890. Old Church Slavonic komora, Lithuanian kamara, Old Irish camra all are borrowings from Latin.
camera obscura (n.): 1725, "a darkened room;" c. 1730, "a device for project pictures;" see camera.
camerlengo (n.): "papal chamberlain," from Italian camerlingo "chamberlain" (see chamberlain).
Cameron: Highland clan name, from Gaelic camshron "wry or hooked nose."
Camilla: fem. proper name, from Latin, fem. of Camillus, cognomen of several members of the gens Furia, from camillus "noble youth attending at sacrifices," perhaps from Etruscan.
camisole (n.): 1816, from French camisole (16c.), from Provençal camisola "mantle," diminutive of camisa "shirt," from Late Latin camisia "shirt, nightgown" (see chemise).
camomile (n.): mid-13c., from Old French camemile, from Late Latin camomilla, from Latin chamomilla, from Greek chamaimelon, literally "earth apple," from chamai "on the ground" (also "dwarf;" see chameleon) + melon "apple" (see malic). So called for its scent. Old English had it as camemalon.
camouflage: 1917, noun, verb, and adjective, from French camoufler, Parisian slang, "to disguise," from Italian camuffare "to disguise," which is of uncertain origin, perhaps a contraction of capo muffare "to muffle the head." Probably altered by influence of French camouflet "puff of smoke," on the notion of "blow smoke in someone's face." The British navy in World War I called it dazzle-painting.
Since the war started the POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY has published photographs of big British and French field pieces covered with shrubbery, railway trains "painted out" of the landscape, and all kinds of devices to hide the guns, trains, and the roads from the eyes of enemy aircraft.

Until recently there was no one word in any language to explain this war trick. Sometimes a whole paragraph was required to explain this military practice. Hereafter one word, a French word, will save all this needless writing and reading. Camouflage is the new word, and it means "fooling the enemy." ["Popular Science Monthly," August 1917]
camp (n.): "place where an army lodges temporarily," 1520s, from French camp, from Italian campo, from Latin campus "open field, level space" (also source of French champ; see campus), especially "open space for military exercise."

A later reborrowing of the Latin word, which had been taken up in early West Germanic as *kampo-z and appeared originally in Old English as camp "contest, battle, fight, war." This was obsolete by mid-15c. Transferred to non-military senses 1550s. Meaning "body of adherents of a doctrine or cause" is 1871. Camp-follower first attested 1810. Camp-meeting is from 1809, originally usually in reference to Methodists. Camp-fever (1758) is any epidemic fever incident to life in a camp, especially typhus or typhoid.
camp (adj.): "tasteless," 1909, homosexual slang, of uncertain origin, perhaps from mid-17c. French camper "to portray, pose" (as in se camper "put oneself in a bold, provocative pose"); popularized 1964 by Susan Sontag's essay "Notes on Camp." Campy is attested from 1959.
camp (v.): "to encamp," 1540s, from camp (n.). Related: Camped; camping. Camping out is attested from 1834, American English.
Camp David: U.S. presidential retreat near Thurmont, Maryland, built 1939 as Hi-Catoctin, in reference to the name of the mountains around it; called Shangri-La by F.D. Roosevelt, after the mythical hard-to-get-to land in the novel "Lost Horizon;" named Camp David by Eisenhower in 1953 for his grandson, born 1947. The Camp David Accords were signed there Sept. 17, 1978.
campagne (n.): obsolete form of campaign.
campaign (n.): 1640s, "operation of an army in the field," during a single season, in a particular region, or in a definite enterprise; from French campagne "campaign," literally "open country," from Old French champagne "countryside, open country" (suited to military maneuvers), from Late Latin campania "level country" (source of Italian campagna, Spanish campaña, Portuguese campanha), from Latin campus "a field" (see campus). Old armies spent winters in quarters and took to the "open field" to seek battle in summer. Extension of meaning to "political activity before an election, marked by organized action in influencing the voters" [DAE] is American English, 1809.
campaign (v.): 1701, from campaign (n.). Political sense is from 1801. Related: Campaigned; campaigning.