campish means somewhat camp, somewhat campy; camp or campy (characterized by camp or kitsch).
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, campish ranks #5,248 of 17,140 for Most Whimsical Words, #6,654 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words, #8,005 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #8,655 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words.
campish is pronounced /ˈkæmpɪʃ/.
Why “campish” is a great word
Having the qualities of or tending toward camp, characterized by an affected, theatrical, or exaggerated aesthetic style. From camp (meaning 'an affected or exaggerated style') + the adjectival suffix -ish (meaning 'having the qualities of, somewhat'); the earliest known use is from 1581 in the writing of Richard Mulcaster, though this early use is unrelated to the modern sense; its use in the modern, aesthetic sense is evidenced from the 19th century, as in an 1868 letter by theatre performer Fanny Boulton. Unlike campy, which denotes a full-fledged commitment to the style, or kitschy, which judges an object as garishly in poor taste, campish suggests a subtle, somewhat tentative adoption—the faint, self-aware arch of an eyebrow over a serious line, the single piece of deliberately overwrought bric-a-brac in a minimalist room, the slight, performed tremolo in an otherwise earnest delivery. It is the gentle signal of an ironic soul not yet ready to fully surrender to the gaudy riot.
Etymology
From camp (“an affected or exaggerated style”) + -ish.
adj
- Somewhat camp, somewhat campy; camp or campy (characterized by camp or kitsch).e.g.“[…] like a campish fantasy of the gay male libido […]” — 2018, Serkan Ertin, Hollinghurst, Camp and Closet, page 44:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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