Camo

How to spell camo

4 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce camo

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does camo mean?

1. nounClothing, fabric, or a pattern designed to blend in with surroundings; an informal short form of camouflage.
2. adjectivePatterned in mottled tones designed to blend into a natural background.

Camo in a sentence

• noun

  The hunters wore camo to stay hidden among the trees.

• adjective

  She bought a camo jacket for the fishing trip.

• noun

  His backpack was covered in green and brown camo.

• adjective

  The toy soldiers came in tiny camo uniforms.

Where does camo come from?

Language of origin: French

This is a casual twentieth-century clipping of camouflage, which English took directly from French around the time of the First World War. The French camoufler meant 'to disguise' and probably grew out of Parisian theatrical and underworld slang, with a likely nudge from the Italian camuffare, meaning 'to disguise or muffle up'. Military forces seized on the longer word to describe paint, netting, and patterns that hide soldiers and equipment, and once the practice became commonplace the shortened camo emerged as everyday speech, especially among soldiers and hunters. The short form spread further when camouflage-patterned cloth became a fashion fabric in the late twentieth century. Because it is a clipping, the spelling simply lops off the back of camouflage and keeps the same first syllables, so the trap is remembering it ends in a plain -o rather than -ou or -oe.

How the word is built

• clipped form of camouflage (camou-
• -flage), shortened to camo