camp

Forms

camp m (plural camps)^[1] The final ⟨p⟩ is silent in the Principality but is generally pronounced in the singular in the southern regions, though not everywhere there; in the plural camps it is always silent.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin campus (“flat land, plain; field”).^[5][4][6][1]

The same Latin word is Occitan camp, French champ, Spanish campo, Italian campo and Romanian câmp.^[7][1] In Latin the piece of tilled land was ager (“field”); using the word for it is a Romance innovation shared by all the Romance languages and already found in Late Latin.^[8]

The Latin word goes back to *kampo- (“field”).^[9] Wiktionary traditionally derives it from *kh₂emp- (“to bend, curve”), which would make it a cognate of Ancient Greek κάμπτω (kámptō, “to bend”) and Lithuanian kam̃pas (“corner”).^[1] De Vaan finds the Latin ⟨a⟩ hard to explain, and notes that Beekes takes the Greek words for substrate words;^[9][1] Wiktionary also gives the alternative that the word was an agricultural term borrowed from a substrate language.^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest vernacular record in CICA is in the complaints of the Templars of Barberà, dated 1190–1210.^[10] Coromines dates the word to the origins of the language and quotes Jaume I's chronicle, where men say they would rather die el camp que en la vila “in the open field than in the town”.^[5] The first sense is thus open country outside a settlement.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

In medieval literature camp is frequent as the field of combat, of a duel or a battle: in Muntaner's chronicle King Charles levà lo camp, won the field, and camp clos was the enclosed ground of judicial duels and tournaments.^[5][11][12] It also meant the place where an army camps, as in the Tirant lo Blanc (1460), where the Moors levaven lo camp, broke camp.^[11] Desclot (1283) and Llull use it for a field of wheat, and Marsili's chronicle (1314) for the field of a coat of arms.^[11][13]

The Latin sense of a plain survives above all in place names, for the flat land around a town: the Camp de Tarragona, recorded in a document of 1315, the Camp de Llíria, the Camp d'Elx.^[5] Derivatives appear early: campa “arable land” in 1370, campal in the 15th century, campanya in 1523, taken from Italian campagna, campament in 1696, from French campement, and camperol in Labèrnia's dictionary of 1839.^[14][5]

Fabra's dictionary of 1932 defines the word first as an open, flat stretch of land, especially one put to a particular use, such as a sports ground, and adds the field of a telescope.^[12] The DIEC2 puts first the piece of farmland outside a town.^[15] Wiktionary adds the field of study and the field of physics.^[1]

Timeline

• 1190–1210 – camp in the complaints of the Templars of Barberà.^[10]
• 1244–1274 – Jaume I's chronicle: morir el camp que en la vila.^[5]
• 1283 – Desclot writes of hiding in hun camp de blat, a wheat field.^[11]
• 1314 – Marsili's chronicle uses camp for the field of a coat of arms.^[11]
• 1315 – a document names the Camp de Tarragona.^[5]
• 1460 – the Tirant lo Blanc uses camp for an army camp.^[11]
• 1932 – Fabra lists camp d'esports and camp de batalla.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A field, a piece of farmland outside a town: Aquest any han sembrat ordi al camp del costat.^[15][6]
2. (in the plural) The farmland around a town or farmhouse.^[15][6]
3. The countryside, as opposed to the town: Els caps de setmana se'n van a viure al camp.^[15][6]
4. A flat stretch of country; used in place names: el Camp de Tarragona.^[4][6]
5. A battlefield, the place of a battle or duel.^[6][12]
6. An army camp or encampment.^[4][1]
7. A ground marked out for a sport, a pitch: un camp de futbol.^[12][16]
8. (heraldry, art) The field, the background on which the figures stand.^[4][11]
9. A field of activity or study, a discipline.^[4][1]
10. (physics) A field, as in camp magnètic.^[1]

Word family

• acampar
• acampada
• acampament
• campa
• campal
• campament
• campanya
• campar
• campejar
• camper
• camperol

Related words

• Campània
• campestre
• campió
• Latin campus
• Occitan camp
• Spanish campo

Usage notes

Set phrases include camps a través “across country”, a camp ras “in the open, without shelter” and a camp obert “in open country”.^[15] Fabra records the colloquial fúmer el camp “to run off, clear out”.^[12] Wiktionary lists the form fotre el camp.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 5, 214
3. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 4, 767
4. ^ a b c d e f Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. camp
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 2, 460
6. ^ a b c d e f g Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. camp
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1563
8. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 791
9. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. camp
11. ^ a b c d e f g Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. camp
12. ^ a b c d e f Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. camp
13. ^ Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. camp
14. ^ Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 165
15. ^ a b c d e Institut d'Estudis Catalans (2007), Diccionari de la llengua catalana, 2nd ed. (DIEC2), Barcelona: Edicions 62; online edition with later updates, https://dlc.iec.cat, p. s.v. camp
16. ^ Institut d'Estudis Catalans (1995), Diccionari de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Edicions 62 / Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. s.v. camp