# adjective for 'camel'

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adjective-for-camel/103577
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 14, 2002, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adjective-for-camel/103577 "2002-04-14T15:16:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2002, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adjective-for-camel/103577/1 "2002-04-14T15:16:18Z")

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OK, I’m stuck …

Dogs are canine.  
Cows are bovine.  
Horses are equine.  
Pigs are porcine.  
Bears are ursine.  
Camels are … ?

Thanks.

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### Author: ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2002, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adjective-for-camel/103577/2 "2002-04-14T15:20:57Z")

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cameloid

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### Author: ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2002, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adjective-for-camel/103577/3 "2002-04-14T15:23:31Z")

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Well, all the others tack -ine onto the Latin word for the animal (canis, equus, ursus, etc.) The Latin word for camel is _camelus_, so you might wind up with cameline. (The biological genus is _Camelus_ and the biological family is _camelidae_, supporting that conjecture.)

You could always go with bactrian or dromedary.

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### Author: ![Bromley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4da419/32.png) [@Bromley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bromley)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2002, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adjective-for-camel/103577/4 "2002-04-14T15:36:33Z")

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I’m going to go with “cameline”. From what I can see, we tend to take the Latin adjective, cut the “us” and add “e”.

Now, “Camel” in latin seems to be “Camelus”, so I’ll assume the latin adjective is “camelinus”. That leaves us with “cameline” in English.

Typing this into google, along with “camel” (to remove all those recipe suggestions), gives [this](http://groups.google.com/groups?q=cameline+camel&hl=en&safe=off&selm=1992Feb10.175337.21855jfh%40netcom.COM&rnum=1).

Hooray!

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### Author: ![Bromley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4da419/32.png) [@Bromley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bromley)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2002, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adjective-for-camel/103577/5 "2002-04-14T15:38:03Z")

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**tomndebb’s** post wasn’t there when I started, and I’ve not been at this for 13 mins. Oh well.

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### Author: ![Jabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@Jabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jabba)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2002, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adjective-for-camel/103577/6 "2002-04-14T16:06:23Z")

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From Chambers dictionary  
**cameline** _adj_ of the nature of a camel

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### Author: ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2002, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adjective-for-camel/103577/7 "2002-04-14T17:38:39Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Jabba \*  
> \*\*From Chambers dictionary  
> **cameline** _adj_ of the nature of a camel \*\*

Many thanks to everyone for their reasonable suggestions, and especially to Jabba for finding an actual dictionary entry. I couldn’t find anything of the kind in any of my dictionaries-maybe I should just spring for the OED. 🙂