Forms: 1 camel, -ell, 3 kamel, 4–5 camele, kamell(e, 4–7 camell, 5 camelle, -ylle, 6 cammell, 6–7 cammel, 3– camel. Also β. 3 camayl(e, 4–5 camail(e, 5 cameile, cameylle, camayll(e, (camely); γ. 4–5 chamel, 4–7 chamell(e; δ 4–5 chameyl(e, 5 chamayle, chamoil. [Late OE. camel, camell, ad. L. camēl-us (-ellus), a. Gr. κάμηλ-ος, adopted from Semitic: Heb. and Phœn. gāmāl; if of native Semitic origin, perh. f. vb. *gāmal, Arab. jamala to bear (Gesenius). In ME. affected by the OF. forms (see below).
The early Teutonic name for the camel was app. in some way identical (or rather, perhaps ultimately derived from a common source) with the Gr. ἐλέφας, ἐλέφαντα, L. elephant-us, elephant: viz. Gothic ulbandus (= ulv-), OHG. olbenta, MHG. olbent, OE. olfend, oluend, found in the Ags. Gospels, and coming down as late as Ormin in form OLFENT, q.v. But the Lindisfarne Gloss already in the 10th c. adopted the L. of the Vulgate as camel, camell-, which after the 12th c., helped by the influence of OF., became the only name. So in the other modern Teut. langs.: Ger. kameel, kamel, Du. kameel. The Romanic langs. follow two Latin types: (1) L. camēlus, whence ONF. cameil, OF. chameil, later camoil, chamoil (like vēla, veile, voile); (2) L. camellus, whence It. cammello, Sp. camello, ONF. camel, OF. chamel, mod.F. chameau (like bellus, bello, bel, beau). All the OF. forms appear in ME. (where cameil regularly became camayl); but the camel of OE. and ONF., being also most like the Latin, is the survivor.]
1. A large hornless ruminant quadruped, distinguished by its humped back, long neck, and cushioned feet; it is nowhere found wild, but is domesticated in Western Asia and Northern Africa, in the arid regions of which it is the chief beast of burden.
There are two distinct species, the Arabian or one-humped, and the Bactrian or two-humped; a lighter and fleeter variety of the former is known as the Dromedary.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., Matt. iii. 4. Gewede of herum ðæra camella [c. 975 Rushw. hræʓl olbendena herum; c. 1000 Ags. reaf of olfenda hærum; c. 1160 Hatton, of oluende hære]. Ibid., Mark i. 6. Mið herum camelles [Rushw. cameles, Ags. oluendes, Hatton, olfendes] Ibid., Matt. xix. 24. Eaður is camel [Rushw. olbende, Ags. olfende] ðerh ðyril nedles oferfæra.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 1398. And fond good grið and good hostel, Him, and hise men, and hise kamel.
c. 1280. E. E. P. (1862), 3. As eþe forto bring a camel in to þe neld-is ei.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 3304. And þine camels [Gött. chameyles, Trin. camailes] sal drinc þair fill.
c. 1300. K. Alis., 6333. They no haveth camayle, no olifaunt.
c. 1382. Wyclif, Judg. viii. 21. The neckis of kyngis chamels [1388 camels]. Ibid., 1 Chron. xii. 40. Assis, and chamoilis [1388 camelis], and mulis.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Clerkes T., 1140. Syn ye be strong as is a greet Camaille [v.r. camaile, camayle, Harl. MS. chamayle (rhyme bataille, -aile, aylle)].
c. 1400. Maundev., xxiii. 250. Mylk of mares or of camaylles or of asses.
c. 1400. Apol. Loll., 45. Blind foolis, clensing forþ þe knatt, but swelowyng þe camely.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., Camelle, or chamelle, camelus.
c. 1450. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 699. Hic camelus, a camylle.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 164/4. His knees were as harde as the horne of a camel.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., V. v. 16. It is as hard to come, as for a Camell To thred the posterne of a Needles eye.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 75. The wantonness thereof appeareth by the proverb of a dancing Camel.
1699. Dampier’s Voy. (1729), III. I. 384. His Neck small, and resembling a Cammels.
1847. Carpenter, Zool., § 278. Well, therefore, has the Camel … been termed ‘the Ship of the Desert.’
1861. Flor. Nightingale, Nursing, 71. It is the last straw that breaks the camel’s back.
b. fig. A great awkward hulking fellow.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., I. ii. 271. A Dray-man, a Porter, a very Camell. Ibid., II. i. 58. Do rudenes, do Camell do, do.
c. fig. in allusion to Matthew xxiii. 24: Anything large and difficult to ‘swallow’ or away with.
[c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 172. Swolwynge þe grete camaile alhool.]
1637. Gillespie, Eng.-Pop. Cerem., II. v. 23. Christians … mocked & nicknamed Puritans, except they can swallow the Camell of Conformity.
1641. Milton, Ch. Govt., vi. (1851), 125. Can we believe that your government strains in good earnest at the petty gnats of schisme, when it makes nothing to swallow the Camel heresie of Rome?
1860. L. Harcourt, Diaries G. Rose, I. 143. If the former was more than ‘a gnat,’ the latter was not less than ‘a camel’ of immorality.
2. techn. A machine for imparting additional buoyancy to vessels, and thus enabling them to cross bars, shoals, etc., otherwise impassable; also for raising sunken ships, removing rocks, etc.
It consists generally of two or more huge water-tight chests provided with plugs and pumps. Water is admitted in order to sink the chests into position, and they are then fitted and braced to the sides of the vessel, which they are sometimes shaped to fit. On pumping out the water the camels rise, bearing up the vessel along with them.
1716. Perry, State of Russ., 168. His Majesty … sent a Person with me to shew me all the Camels (which are flat Vessels made to be fix’d to the bottom of Ships, and to come up like a Chest on each side).
1799. in Naval Chron., II. 283. Men of war … lifted over the bar by means of camels. Ibid. (1805), XIV. 227.
1847. A. Key, Recov. H. M. S. Gorgon, 76. The construction of camels to be secured to the ship’s bilge.
† 3. (See quot.) Obs.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., Camel is also a denomination given to a kind of pit-coal, otherwise called canel.
4. attrib. and Comb., as camel-back, -battery, -corps, -driver, -gulper (see 1 c), -hide, -keeper, -load, -man, -path, -trunk; also camel-backed, -faced, -haired, -like, -shaped adjs.
1860. R. Noel, Vac. Tour, 463–4. It may be considered no slight feat for ladies to ride ten, twelve, and twenty-four hours on *camel back at a stretch.
1631. Weever, Anc. Fun. Mon., 477. Crooked, crump-shouldred, or *Camell-backed.
1639. Fuller, Holy War, IV. xxvi. (1840), 227. Not that he was crookshouldered, or *camelbacked.
1884. J. Macdonald, in 19th Cent., June, 987. The blue-jackets of the … *camel-battery poured a well-directed fire at … the redoubt.
1884. Gilmour, Mongols, 112. The *camel caravan usually does a good part of its travelling at night.
1884. Times, 22 Nov., 5/1. The *Camel Corps which marched from Assouan.
1818. Keats, Endym., III. 473. To slake My greedy thirst with nectarous *camel-draughts.
1753. Hanway, Trav. (1762), I. III. xxix. 125. The trifling conduct of the carriers and *camel-drivers.
1829. Southey, Sir T. More, II. 27. Father Cressy, the *Camel-gulper.
1807. Med. Jrnl., xvii. 179. *Camel-faced boys and girls, and *camel-haired children.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 2250. Þai þam hide Bath wit hors and *camel-hide.
1591. Percivall, Sp. Dict., Camelero, a *Camel keeper.
a. 1603. T. Cartwright, Confut. Rhem. N. T. (1618), 500. Knees … *Camell-like in the curtesie which you giue unto his name.
1761. Chron., in Ann. Reg., 59/2. A large camel-like protuberance of fat on the top of their shoulders.
1753. Hanway, Trav. (1762), I. III. xxx. 129. *Camel-loads of cloth.
1613. Purchas, Pilgr. (1864), 68. Indian Merchants, with their … ten Camels, and fiue *Camel-men.
1883. E. Arnold, Pearls of Faith, XXII. 79. Amru the camel-man lay dead.
1884. Daily News, 27 Sept., 5/3. Two *camel messengers … came in to-day to ask for food and arms.
1824. Edin. Rev., XLI. 45. Beaten *camel-paths.
1660–3. J. Spencer, Prodigies (1665), 394. I think it hard to find a Faith that can swallow any such *Camel-stories.
1854. Thackeray, Newcomes, II. 294. A *camel trunk or two which have accompanied him on many an Indian march.
5. Special comb.: camel-bird, name applied to the Ostrich; camel-brown, an artificial fly used in angling; camel-engine, = sense 2; camel-gut, the dried gut or intestines of a camel used to furnish strings for musical instruments; camel’s-hay, a sweet-scented grass or rush growing in the East (Andropogon Schœnanthus); camel-insect, a name given to members of the genus Mantis, from their elongated thorax; camel-kneed a., having hard or callous knees like those of a camel, caused by much kneeling; camel-locust = camel-insect; camel’s-meat = camel’s-hay; camel’s-straw, an old name for the Common Rush (Juncus conglomeratus and effusus); camel(’s)-thorn, a leguminous plant (Alhagi camelorum); camel-tree, Acacia giraffæ. Also CAMEL(’S)-HAIR.
1771. T. Scott, Job, note, The Ostrich is called by the Persians the *Camel-Bird.
1787. Best, Angling, 107. September … 2 *Camel brown … 2 Dubbed with the hair pulled out of the lime of an old wall.
1866. Athenæum, No. 1999. 240/3. A huge, powerful, *camel-engine.
1880. L. Wallace, Ben-Hur, 7. Languishing acacias and tufts of *camel-grass.
1879. Stainer, Music of Bible, 12. The Kinnor had, according to Fetis, nine strings of *camel-gut.
1597. Gerard, Herbal, I. xxix. § 1. 40. *Camels haie hath leaues very like vnto Cyperus.
1718. Quincy, Compl. Disp., 81. Camels-Hay is also frequently call’d the sweet Rush.
1801. Southey, Thalaba, V. xxxvi. Some *camel-kneed prayer-monger.
1598. Florio, Squinance, squinanth, *cammels meate, or sweet rush, which is very medicinable.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, IV. lii. 511. The first kinde [of Rushes] is called in … English, the Rush candle, or Candle rushe: *Camels strawe.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 74. There is a certain herb, which hath a seed like a myrtle-seed … and this seed is food for Camels…. It is therefore called *Camel-thorn.
1850. Layard, Nineveh, xii. 306. Without a blade of vegetation, except a scanty tuft of camel-thorn.
