Fwd: more astounding acronyms

[Michael Quinion]

Following some gentle prodding about sources from Jesse Sheidlower, I went
back to look at my sources. My memory's a bit confused. The phrase about
"campish undertakings" was in a letter from Frederick Park to Lord Arthur
Clinton in November 1868. That information came from a message posted to
this list by Kathleen Miller on 18 July 2003 in which she quotes from
"Love Stories: Sex Between Men Before Homosexuality" by Jonathan Ned Katz.
He gives a detailed citation. The message should still be in the archives.

While we're on astounding acronyms, a correspondent once told me that he
had heard that "camp" came from a police court abbreviation for "known as
male prostitute", with the first letter changed.


--
Michael Quinion
Editor, World Wide Words
E-mail: wordseditor at worldwidewords.org
Web: http://www.worldwidewords.org