camello

Old Spanish

Alternative forms

• camelo

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *camēllus, from Latin camēlus (additional /l/ due to influence from the ending -ĕllus, which did not however change the stressed vowel), from Ancient Greek κάμηλος (kámēlos).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kaˈmeʎo/

Noun

camello m (plural camellos)

1. camel
   • c. 1200, Almerich, Fazienda de Ultramar, f. 5v:

     Catarõ ⁊ vierõ vna requa de paganos de los de ẏſmael. E vinien de galaat cõ ſos camellos cargados de mercaduras e ẏuã a egipto

     They looked up and saw a pagan caravan, of those of Ishmael. And they were coming from Gilead with their camels loaded with goods, and they were headed to Egypt.

Descendants

• Ladino: kameyo (Latin spelling)
• Spanish: camello

Spanish

Alternative forms

• gamello (obsolete)

Etymology

Inherited from Old Spanish camello, from Vulgar Latin *camēllus, from Latin camēlus, from Ancient Greek κάμηλος (kámēlos), ultimately from Proto-Semitic *gamal-. More at camel.

The sense of "drug dealer" comes from the fact that, in the early 20th century, dealers used to hide their drugs on their back when police came near. Some dealers even used to pretend to be hunchbacks, hiding the drugs in fake humps made of cardboard or tin.

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /kaˈmeʝo/ [kaˈme.ʝo]

• IPA^(key): (most of Spain and Latin America) /kaˈmeʝo/ [kaˈme.ʝo]
• IPA^(key): (rural northern Spain, Andes Mountains, Paraguay, Philippines) /kaˈmeʎo/ [kaˈme.ʎo]
• IPA^(key): (Buenos Aires and environs) /kaˈmeʃo/ [kaˈme.ʃo]
• IPA^(key): (elsewhere in Argentina and Uruguay) /kaˈmeʒo/ [kaˈme.ʒo]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

 

• Rhymes: -eʝo

• Rhymes: -eʝo
• Rhymes: -eʎo
• Rhymes: -eʃo
• Rhymes: -eʒo

• Syllabification: ca‧me‧llo

Noun

camello m (plural camellos, feminine camella, feminine plural camellas)

1. camel

   Hyponym: dromedario

2. (informal, Colombia, Ecuador) job, work

   Synonym: trabajo

   • 2023 April 14, “Juan Carlos Osorio ya consiguió ‘camello’: dirigirá en Egipto”, in El Colombiano‎^[1], Colombia:

     Juan Carlos Osorio ya consiguió camello.

     Juan Carlos Osorio has already found a job.

3. (informal, Colombia) labour, toil

   Synonym: trabajo

   • 1998 May 13, “Un camello conseguir trabajo”, in El Tiempo‎^[2], Colombia:

     Hoy en día conseguir empleo es todo un camello.

     Nowadays, finding a job is hard work.

4. (informal, Spain) pusher, drug dealer

   Synonym: narcotraficante

   • 2019 March 11, “De Clint Eastwood siempre esperas más”, in El País‎^[3]:

     Existe algún momento divertido enlas aventuras de este camello tardío.

     There is some funny moment in the adventures of this late pusher.

Coordinate terms

• (Camelids) camélido; camello (dromedario, camello bactriano), llama, guanaco, alpaca, vicuña ^{(Category: es:Camelids)}

Derived terms

• acamellado
• camello bactriano
• camellón
• hacer de una pulga un camello

Descendants

• → Bikol Central: kamelyo
• → Tagalog: kamelyo

Verb

camello

1. first-person singular present indicative of camellar

Further reading

• “camello”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10