Camp

Part of speech: noun, verb

Pronunciation: /kæmp/

Definitions

1. A place where people stay temporarily outdoors, often with tents or cabins ; a group providing outdoor accommodation and activities ; a style or aesthetic embracing exaggerated, theatrical, or humorous artifice
2. A site for temporary lodging usually in nature, often for recreation or training ; a community of people living together for a purpose, such as scouts or soldiers ; a cultural style characterized by deliberate kitsch, irony, or flamboyance
3. An area designated for temporary residence, typically associated with leisure or outdoor pursuits ; an organized collective with a common interest or function ; an artistic mode known for its self-aware exaggeration and playful excessiveness

Etymology: The noun that now means a temporary outdoor shelter started out meaning a battlefield. Old English "camp" meant "battle, contest, battlefield, open space," and it descends from Latin "campus," an open level field, which is also where English gets "campus." Its shape changed little across the centuries; the fighting sense simply narrowed to the place where soldiers pitched their tents, a sense that was reinforced around 1520 by Middle French "camp," describing where an army lodged temporarily. The verb is older in its fighting sense. Old English "campian" meant "to fight, war against," and its relatives survive in German "kämpfen" ("to struggle") and Dutch "kampen." The word's sibling is "champ," which entered French from the same Latin root and has a separate English history. The modern sense of "camp" as a holiday or recreational site came later, but its origin lies in the military ground where soldiers once camped.

Synonyms: encampment, site, base, outpost, lodging

Antonyms: disband, leave, evacuate, depart, dismiss