camel, noun

Origin:
South African DutchShow more Calque formed on South African Dutch kameel, see kameel.
obs.
cameleopard. Also attributive.
1837 ‘N. Polson’ Subaltern’s Sick Leave 139The princely zerapha or giraffe in bevies...These camels (as they are technically termed by travellers in the interior) go off at an awkward and not very fast gallop.
1886 G.A. Farini Through Kalahari Desert 294‘Yah!’ interposed the veldt-cornet, ‘it’s always hard on the horses if the camel sees or smells them at a distance.’
[1886 G.A. Farini Through Kalahari Desert 304The double-ended camel-birds..are seen only in the k’gung forest, and then only in the parts where the stately giraffe makes his home, and this is why they are called ‘camel-birds,’ or ‘giraffe-birds’.]
1897 Selous & Bryden Trav. & Big Game 170 (Pettman)The Boers as soon as they became acquainted with the tall giraffe, forthwith dubbed it in their quaint way, ‘kameel’ — the camel; and as the camel the giraffe is still known throughout the length and breadth of the South African hunting veldt.
1913 C. Pettman Africanderisms 105Camel, The Anglicized Dutch name for the Giraffe (kameel) generally employed by South African hunters.
1936 [see kameel].
cameleopard. Also attributive.
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obsolete or obsolescent
Camdeboo, nounn.cameleopard, nounn.
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