"Campish"

Douglas G. Wilson douglas at NB.NET
Wed Jul 9 00:59:08 UTC 2003


>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.

Is there any context which would indicate unequivocally and precisely what
"campish" meant here?

-- Doug Wilson



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