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Wiktionary

camouflage

See also: Camouflage

English

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Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from French camouflage, from camoufler (“to veil, disguise”), alteration (due to camouflet (“smoke blown in one's face”)) of Italian camuffare (“to muffle the head”), from ca- (from Italian capo (“head”)) + muffare (“to muffle”), from Medieval Latin muffula, muffla (“muff”). This Medieval Latin, from which there is also English muffle, is either derived from a Frankish *molfell (“soft garment made of hide”) from *mol (“softened, forworn”) (akin to Old High German molawēn (“to soften”), Middle High German molwic (“soft”)) + *fell (“hide, skin”), from Proto-Germanic *fellą (“skin, film, fleece”), or, an alternate etymology traces it to a Frankish *muffël (“a muff, wrap, envelope”) composed of *mauwa (“sleeve, wrap”) from Proto-Germanic *mawwō (“sleeve”) + *fell (“skin, hide”) from Proto-Germanic *fellą (“skin, film, fleece”).

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈkæ.məˌflɑːʒ/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)
  • Hyphenation: cam‧ou‧flage

Noun

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camouflage (countable and uncountable, plural camouflages)

 
A leopard's natural camouflage
  1. A disguise or covering up.
  2. The act of disguising.
  3. (military) The use of natural or artificial material on personnel, objects, or tactical positions with the aim of confusing, misleading, or evading the enemy.[1]
  4. (textiles) A pattern on clothing consisting of irregularly shaped patches that are either greenish/brownish, brownish/whitish, or bluish/whitish, as used by ground combat forces.
  5. (biology) Resemblance of an organism to its surroundings for avoiding detection.
    • 2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, pages 206–7:
      Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close […] above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them. Many insects probably use this strategy, which is a close analogy to crypsis in the visible world—camouflage and other methods for blending into one’s visual background.
  6. Clothes made from camouflage fabric, for concealment in combat or hunting.

Derived terms

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Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb

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camouflage (third-person singular simple present camouflages, present participle camouflaging, simple past and past participle camouflaged)

  1. To hide or disguise something by covering it up or changing the way it looks.
    • 1960 January, “New reading on railways”, in Trains Illustrated, page 26:
      THE CONCISE ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF WORLD RAILWAY LOCOMOTIVES. Edited by P. Ransome-Wallis. Hutchinson. 50s.
      A gaudy jacket, remarkably out of keeping with the contents, camouflages the weightiest and meatiest work on a railway topic since the war.
    • 1962 October, Brian Haresnape, “Focus on B.R. passenger stations”, in Modern Railways, pages 250–251:
      Elegant brick and stone buildings, with iron and glass canopies and decorative wooden scalloping and fencing—all evidencing care on the part of the architect to produce a pleasing, well-planned building—were submerged beneath a profusion of ill-conceived additions and camouflaged by vulgar paint schemes; and the original conception was lost.

Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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  1. ^ (JP 1-02 Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms).

Further reading

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Dutch

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Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from French camouflage.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˌkaː.muˈflaː.ʒə/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: ca‧mou‧fla‧ge
  • Rhymes: -aːʒə

Noun

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camouflage f (plural camouflages)

  1. camouflage [from mid 1910s]

Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • → Indonesian: kamuflase
  • → West Frisian: kamûflaazje

French

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Etymology

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From camoufler (“disguise, to hide”) +‎ -age (noun-forming suffix).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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camouflage m (plural camouflages)

  1. camouflage

Descendants

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Further reading

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