camouflage

Borrowed 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”), from 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”), from Proto-Indo-European *pel(e)(w)-, *plē(w)- (“skin, hide”). Akin to Old High German fel (“fell, skin, hide”), Old English fell (“fell, skin, hide”). Alternate etymology traces the Italian and Medieval Latin words to Middle High German mouwe, mōwe (“sleeve”) (German Muff (“muff”), Dutch mouw (“sleeve”)) from Proto-Germanic *mawwō (“sleeve”) + fell (“skin”). More at mulch, fell.

(Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this pronunciation?)

• IPA^(key): /ˈkæ.mə.ˌflɑːʒ/, /ˈkæ.mŏ.ˌflɑːʒ/
• Hyphenation: cam‧ou‧flage

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, page 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.

• camo (by abbreviation)

• camoufleur

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.

• camo

• • camouflage on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
  • camouflage on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

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

• IPA^(key): /ka.mu.flaʒ/

camouflage m (plural camouflages)

1. camouflage

• English: camouflage (borrowed)
• Greek: καμουφλάζ n (kamoufláz) (borrowed)

• “camouflage” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).