Other forms: camels
A camel is a desert animal that stores water and has humps on its back. A camel train, ride a camel, two-humped camel.
The humps hold fat rather than water, and the water is stored in the blood and tissues — a camel can drink a hundred litres in ten minutes. A dromedary has one hump and a bactrian two. The straw that broke the camel's back is the proverb. Note that the word came from Semitic through Greek.
1nouncamelA humped desert animal.
“We rode camels across the desert to the ancient city.”
camel is an animal.
Latin camelus comes through Greek from a Semitic word for the animal. The word travelled with the trade.
Proto-Semitic
*gamal-
Ancient Greek
κάμηλος
Latin
camēlus
fro-nor
camel
Old English
camel
Middle English
camel
English, today
camel
From Middle English camel, through Old English camel and fro-nor camel (Old French chamel, modern French chameau), from Latin camēlus, from Ancient Greek κάμηλος, from a sem source, ultimately from Proto-Semitic gamal-; compare Arabic جَمَل, Hebrew גמל, arc ܓܡܠܐ, cop ϭⲁⲙⲟⲩⲗ. As a marine device, from Dutch -. As an ethnic slur, short for camelfucker, camel jockey, etc.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA