encampment

Etymology

It is formed from English encamp + -ment.^[2][3][4][5] The verb, recorded from 1549, is formed from en- and camp,^[2][6][3] and that noun, in its military sense, is from French camp,^[2][3] from Italian campo, from Latin campus (“open field, level space”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A place where a body of troops is lodged: 1598, in Barret's Theorike and Practike of Moderne Warres.^[2][6][4] Etymonline dates it to the 1590s likewise.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The place came first, and the action of encamping only in 1686, in Luttrell's diary, which Etymonline dates to the 1680s as well.^[2][3] Johnson (1755) gave the action first and "tents pitched in order" second.^[7] From 1725, in Defoe, it was extended beyond armies to the temporary quarters of nomads, travellers and others.^[2][4] From 1787 to 1878 it could also be a meeting of Masons.^[2][4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also records the people in a camp collectively, and a convention of a national association of ex-servicemen.^[6]

Timeline

• 1598 – a place where troops are lodged.^[2][6]
• 1686 – the action of encamping; the state of being encamped.^[2]
• 1725 – the temporary quarters of nomads, travellers and others.^[2]
• 1787 – a Masonic meeting (obsolete by 1878).^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A place where a body of troops or other people is lodged in tents or other temporary shelter; a camp: The scouts pitched their encampment beside the lake.^[8][6][9][2]
2. The act of setting up a camp; the state of being encamped.^[8][6][9][2]
3. The people who make up a camp, collectively.^[6]
4. A convention of a national association of ex-servicemen.^[6]
5. (obsolete, 1787–1878) A Masonic meeting.^[2][4]

Related words

• encamp
• camp
• campus

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins