cameroon
/kæməˈɹuːn/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.53 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
A country in Central Africa. Official name: Republic of Cameroon. Capital: Yaoundé. It also claims Ambazonia.
noun
A sheep of a domesticated breed from West Africa.
noun
A Conservative Party member with green or social liberal leanings, supporting the policies of David Cameron.
British usage
Example Sentences
- "Security officials say such a move makes it easy for Boko Haram to infiltrate Cameroon and gather vital security information."
- "He fears that in downplaying traditional Conservative causes, in changing the party to be more in tune with modern Britain, the Cameroons have in effect accepted that they won't change the country much in office."
- "Today, I spy a coalition outrider: Nick Boles, MP for Grantham, founder of Policy Exchange and the archetypal Cameroon ultra-modernizer. I don’t think Boles even owned a tie until he was elected to the House of Commons. That’s how much of a Cameroon the man is."
- "Maude was a moderniser before modernity dawned in the Tory ranks, a Cameroon before David Cameron."
- "Mr Cameron won significantly smaller vote shares than either Theresa May or Boris Johnson. There are not many Cameroons in Britain. Outside some newspaper op-ed pages, there never were."
Etymology
Etymology tree Pre-Greekder. Ancient Greek κάμμαρος (kámmaros)bor. Latin cammārus Proto-Indo-European *-ōder. Proto-Indo-European *-Hōder.? Latin -ōnem Old Galician-Portuguese -on Portuguese -ão Portuguese camarão Portuguese Rio dos Camarões Portuguese Camarõesbor. French Camerounbor. English Cameroon Borrowed from French Cameroun, from Portuguese Rio dos Camarões (“river of prawns”), a name given to the Wouri river estuary, in 1472 by the sailors of the Portuguese explorer Fernão do Pó (a.k.a. Fernando Pó), raving about the abundance of shrimps of the species Lepidophthalmus turneranus (the Cameroon ghost shrimp) in the river; camarão itself is from Latin cammarus (“lobster”), from Ancient Greek κάμμαρος (kámmaros, “a kind of lobster or shrimp”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: -, cammarus, κάμμαρος
Usage
- British usage