camp

1) adj

homosexual, effeminate or affectedly the-atrical in manner, gesture, speech, etc. A word which emerged from theatrical slang into general use in the 1960s. The sense of the term has moved from the specific (a (male) homosexual) to the general (affected, exaggerated, parodic). The word was adopted by the theatrical world some time after World War I from London slang, but the ultimate derivation of the adjective is obscure. It may come from the French camper, meaning to portray or pose, or from the dialect term kemp, meaning uncouth. In the late 1970s the gay phrase 'as camp as a row of tents', referring to a person who is out-rageously or blatantly camp, crossed over into general usage. The word 'camp' was adopted in Australia and the USA before World War II.

► 'To be camp is to be mannered, affected, theatrical. To be camp is to be effemi-nate. ' (About Town magazine, June 1962)

2) camp about, camp it up

vb

to behave in a camp way, using exagger-ated, 'effeminate' gestures, speech man-nerisms, etc. The phrase 'camp it up' is particularly used to indicate a scene-stealing or outrageous piece of theatrics (literal or figurative) without necessarily any sexual overtones