different between feint vs camouflage

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fe??nt/
  • Rhymes: -e?nt
  • Homophone: faint

Etymology 1

Borrowed from French feint (“pretended”), from Old French feindre (“to feign”).

Verb

feint (third-person singular simple present feints, present participle feinting, simple past and past participle feinted)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To make a feint, or mock attack.
   • 1914, Booth Tarkington, Penrod Chapter 22

     when he passed other children on the street, he practised the habit of feinting a blow; then, as the victim dodged, he rasped out the triumphant horse-laugh which he gradually mastered to horrible perfection.

   • 1924, Harold Lamb, Forward

     I spurred on the Turani instead of pulling him in, and stood up in the saddle just as we came upon the two. By feinting a slash at one I made him throw up his saber to guard his head. Then, leaning down as the three ponies came together, I cut at the other’s neck, getting home over his blade. His mount reared and shelled him out of the saddle like a pea out of a pod.

   • 2013, Len Levinson, Meat Grinder Hill

     Gomez feinted with his knife and the other man darted backward. He feinted again and the man moved to the side. The man feinted but Gomez didn't budge; he was anxious to get it on.

Translations

Adjective

feint (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Feigned; counterfeit.
2. (fencing, boxing, war) (of an attack) directed toward a different part from the intended strike

Translations

Noun

feint (plural feints)

1. A movement made to confuse the opponent; a dummy.
2. Something feigned; an false or pretend appearance; a pretense or stratagem.

   • Mr. Courtly's letter is but a feint to get off from a subject […] .

   • 2014, Alastair Mann , James VII: Duke and King of Scots

     Toleration was just a feint to achieve the objective of the Catholic mission.

4. (fencing, boxing, war) An offensive movement resembling an attack in all but its continuance
   • 1858, William Hamilton Maxwell, Flood & field; or, The recollections of a soldier of fortune

     Massena's retreat might only be a feint to draw the allies from their position

   • 1999, Allan Skipp, Handbook of Foil Fencing

     It is also possible to deliver a compound riposte by using an indirect feint. The attacking fencer would be open to a compound riposte following a successful parry by their opponent.

Translations

Etymology 2

C19: Variant of faint.

Noun

feint (uncountable)

1. The narrowest rule used in the production of lined writing paper.

Anagrams

• Fenit

French

Etymology

Past participle of feindre; from Old French feint, from Latin fictus, probably through the Vulgar Latin form *finctus, with a nasal infix. Compare Italian finto.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f??/
• Rhymes: -??

Verb

feint m (feminine singular feinte, masculine plural feints, feminine plural feintes)

1. past participle of feindre
2. third-person singular present indicative of feindre

Anagrams

• fient

West Frisian

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

feint c (plural feinten, diminutive feintsje)

1. young man
2. boy
3. boyfriend

   Coordinate term: faam

Derived terms

• frijfeint

Further reading

• “feint”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French camouflage, from camoufler (“to veil, disguise”), alteration (due to camouflet (“smoke blown in one's face”)) of Italian camuffare (“to muffle the head”), from ca- (from Italian capo (“head”)) + muffare (“to muffle”), from Medieval Latin muffula, muffla (“muff”). This Medieval Latin, from which there is also English muffle, is either derived from a Frankish *molfell (“soft garment made of hide”) from *mol (“softened, forworn”) (akin to Old High German molaw?n (“to soften”), Middle High German molwic (“soft”)) + *fell (“hide, skin”), from Proto-Germanic *fell? (“skin, film, fleece”), or, an alternate etymology traces it to a Frankish *muffël (“a muff, wrap, envelope”) composed of *mauwa (“sleeve, wrap”) from Proto-Germanic *maww? (“sleeve”) + *fell (“skin, hide”) from Proto-Germanic *fell? (“skin, film, fleece”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?kæ.m??fl???/
• Hyphenation: cam?ou?flage

Noun

camouflage (countable and uncountable, plural camouflages)

1. A disguise or covering up.
2. The act of disguising.
3. (military) The use of natural or artificial material on personnel, objects, or tactical positions with the aim of confusing, misleading, or evading the enemy.
4. (textiles) A pattern on clothing consisting of irregularly shaped patches that are either greenish/brownish, brownish/whitish, or bluish/whitish, as used by ground combat forces.
5. (biology) Resemblance of an organism to its surroundings for avoiding detection.
6. Clothes made from camouflage fabric, for concealment in combat or hunting.

Derived terms

• camo (by abbreviation)

Related terms

• camoufleur

Translations

Verb

camouflage (third-person singular simple present camouflages, present participle camouflaging, simple past and past participle camouflaged)

1. To hide or disguise something by covering it up or changing the way it looks.

Derived terms

• camo

Translations

References

Further reading

• • camouflage on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
  • camouflage on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French camouflage.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ka?.mu?fla?.??/
• Hyphenation: ca?mou?fla?ge
• Rhymes: -a???

Noun

camouflage f (plural camouflages)

1. camouflage [from mid 1910s]

Derived terms

• camouflagekleur

Related terms

• camoufleren

Descendants

• ? West Frisian: kamûflaazje

French

Etymology

camoufler (“disguise, to hide”) +? -age (noun-forming suffix).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ka.mu.fla?/

Noun

camouflage m (plural camouflages)

1. camouflage

Descendants

• ? English: camouflage
• ? German: Camouflage
• ? Greek: ????????? n (kamoufláz)
• ? Russian: ????????? (kamufljáž) (see there for further descendants)

Further reading

• “camouflage” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).