"Campish"

[Fred Shapiro]

The Historical Dictionary of American Slang traces "camp" in its
homosexual sense to 1909.  But Jonathan Ned Katz, in his book _Love
Stories_ (2001), points out that the word "campish" was used similarly in
a letter from the cross-dresser Frederick Park to Lord Arthur Clinton in
1868:

1868 Frederick Park _Letter_ Nov. in Jonathan Ned Katz _Love Stories_ 193
[My] campish undertakings are not at present meeting with the success they
deserve.

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
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