camel

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English camel, also camail and chamel,^[2][3] inherited from Old English camel, also camell,^[4][5][6] borrowed from Latin camēlus,^[4][6][7][8] from Ancient Greek κάμηλος (kámēlos),^[4][6][3] of Semitic origin;^{[7][6][9][10]} Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Semitic *gamal-.^[11] The Semitic forms compared are Biblical Hebrew גמל (gāmāl, “camel”),^{[4][6][3][11]} Phoenician gml, probably pronounced the same way,^[4] Akkadian gammalu^[6] and Arabic جَمَل (jamal);^[6][12][11] the OED and Etymonline mention a possible connection with an Arabic verb meaning "to bear".^[4][13] In Middle English the word was reinforced by Old French forms,^[4][14][8] Anglo-Norman cameil^[7] and Old French chamel,^[12][3] modern French chameau.^[14][13] The Anglo-Norman word is recorded from 1121–35.^[15] Mayhew and Skeat note that the regular Old French outcome of the Latin word was chameil, and that the ending of camel is analogical.^[16]

The Old English word replaced an older Germanic name for the animal, Old English olfend,^{[17][18][13][4]} which was apparently identical with, or came from the same source as, the word for the elephant, Ancient Greek ἐλέφας (eléphas) and Latin elephantus.^[4][13][17] The same confusion is found in Gothic 𐌿𐌻𐌱𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌿𐍃 (ulbandus), Old High German olbenta, Old Saxon olbhunt and Old Norse ulfaldi.^[13][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The animal, in the Lindisfarne Gospels' gloss on Matthew 3:4, where John the Baptist is dressed in camel's hair: about 950.^[4][6][5]

Semantic evolution

The Lindisfarne glossator of the 10th century adopted the Vulgate's Latin word, while the West Saxon Gospels still used olfend, which survived into early Middle English in the Ormulum.^[4][5] After the 12th century camel prevailed, helped by Old French.^[4] Middle English already had compounds such as camel her, a cloth of camel's hair,^[2] and Chaucer used the word once, in the form camaille.^[19] Figurative uses are recorded from Shakespeare, who in 1609 called an awkward hulking man a camel;^[4] from 1637 a camel was something hard to accept or excuse, after the Gospel saying about straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel.^[4][8] Johnson (1755) described the one-humped and the two-humped kinds.^[20] The camel-coloured fawn is recorded from 1881;^[4] from 1716 the name was given to a device that lifted ships over shoals by added buoyancy.^[4][8] Wiktionary takes this marine sense from Dutch.^[11] A type of aeroplane was called a camel from 1918,^[4] and the camel walk as a dance from 1919.^[13] In Somerset dialect a camel was a carpenter's word for an upward bend in a beam.^[21] In American slang of the 1880s it was a bustle.^[22] The saying that a camel is a horse designed by a committee is attributed to Alec Issigonis, the designer of the Mini.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 950 – Old English camel, the animal, in the Lindisfarne Gospels.^[4][6]
• c. 1300 – Middle English camaile, in the South English Legendary.^[2]
• 1609 – a big awkward man, in Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida.^[4]
• 1637 – something difficult to accept or tolerate.^[4]
• 1716 – a device giving extra buoyancy to ships.^[4]
• 1865 – the verb, in to camel it, to travel by camel.^[4]
• 1881 – a fawn colour.^[4]
• 1882 – a bustle, in American slang.^[22]
• 1918 – a type of aeroplane.^[4]
• 1919 – the camel walk, a dance.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. Either of two large ruminant mammals with long necks and humped backs, used as pack and riding animals in desert regions: the one-humped dromedary or Arabian camel and the two-humped Bactrian camel.^[12][10][8]
2. A light yellowish-brown or fawn colour: a camel overcoat.^[10][4][8]
3. A watertight float or set of chests fixed to a ship to give it extra buoyancy, for lifting it over shallows or raising it when sunk.^[10][4][8]
4. A raft or float used as a fender between a ship and a wharf.^[10]

Word family

• camellike
• camelback
• cameleer
• camelhair
• camelopard
• Arabian camel
• Bactrian camel
• camel's hair

Related words

• gimel
• gamma
• elephant

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b c d Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
12. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
14. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
16. ^ Mayhew, A. L.; Skeat, Walter W. (1888), A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 to 1580, Oxford: Clarendon Press
17. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
18. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
19. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
20. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
21. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
22. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com