Camp
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- Junior Lexiterian
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Camp
Wondering what the etymology is for this word. Not camp as in tent and fire in some wilderness setting but camp as in Blankety Blanks or the Batman and Robin tv serials of the 1960s.
ah, Campy it's a term of mild derision often used by vapid arty types from the 1960's who used it so often, not realizing they were the epitomie of camp.
and here's morecamp, campy
providing sophisticated amusement by virtue of having artificially (and vulgarly) mannered or banal or sentimental qualities; "they played up the silliness of their roles for camp effect"; "campy Hollywood musicals of the 1940's"
tasteless, in poor taste(p) — lacking aesthetic or social taste
Katy
Main Entry: 3camp
Function: noun
Etymology: origin unknown
1 : exaggerated effeminate mannerisms exhibited especially by homosexuals
2 : a homosexual displaying camp
3 : something so outrageously artificial, affected, inappropriate, or out-of-date as to be considered amusing
4 : something self-consciously exaggerated or theatrical
- camp·i·ly /'kam-p&-lE/ adverb
- camp·i·ness /-pE-n&s/ noun
- campy /'kam-pE/ adjective Merriam-Webster
Wow, Katy, I've never heard "camp" used as in def. 1 or 2 before. It's always a weird feeling when that happens, like there's this whole world of people saying things a certain way and I'm missing out entirely on it... I'm going to be so lost by the time I'm 60.
From EtymOnline.com:
-Tim
From EtymOnline.com:
Suddenly, I'm remembering Madonna's song, Vogue...camp (2)
"tasteless," 1909, homosexual slang, perhaps from mid-17c. Fr. 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."
-Tim
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Actually, you have to try very hard in British English not to make the word camp be a referrence to male homosexuality. To say that someone was not camp implies that he is gay but doesn't act it; to say that someone is camp implies that he acts as if he's gay, but may or may not be so.
-- Garzo.
-- Garzo.
"Poetry is that which gets lost in translation" — Robert Frost
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- Grand Panjandrum
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A Swedish site refers to Susan Sontag, and explains the word (still in the English spelling) as meaning originally something ludicrous or hopelessly outdated, and that it nowadays refers to things oldfashioned, or at least not modern, but anyway acceptable, perhaps even bordering on trendy.
Irren ist männlich
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I think BD managed to drive a coach and horses through my definition: thanks, Dude. Camp usually means in British English that a man exhibits obviously homosexual mannerisms. Of course, such mannerisms are as much part of the sub-culture as anything else. Thus, someone who might be considered to be a straight-acting gay man might be referred to as being not camp. Generally, a straight (sexually) man would not be described as being not camp, because he is not expected to be. However, a man described as camp exhibits such socially defined mannerisms, but may or may not be homosexual.
NB. Caravan-site is not the equivalent term among English lesbians or Lebanese angels.
NB. Caravan-site is not the equivalent term among English lesbians or Lebanese angels.
"Poetry is that which gets lost in translation" — Robert Frost
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- Junior Lexiterian
- Posts: 13
- Joined: Mon Feb 21, 2005 11:28 pm
- Location: Townsville, Queensland
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- Junior Lexiterian
- Posts: 13
- Joined: Mon Feb 21, 2005 11:28 pm
- Location: Townsville, Queensland
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