Campaign

Also 7–8 campagne, 7 -agn, -aine, -aigne. [a. F. campagne country, open country, champaign, ‘the field,’ campaign, which in the course of the 16th c. took the place of the earlier champagne in all its senses (except as the proper name of a French province). It was introduced into Eng. in the 17th c., and at first occasionally used in all the senses of the earlier CHAMPAIGN, but was at length differentiated, and restricted to the military sense, for which it is now the proper term. The forms campagna, -agnia, -ania were also in 17th c. use (see above).

  Littré treats 16th-c. Fr. campagne as a substitution of the northern or Picard dialect form for the Parisian champagne; but there can be no doubt that it was actually an adaptation of It. campagna (common in the military sense in 16th c., e.g., Caro, Virgil’s Æn., XII. 563 ‘Turno la campagna aprendo,’ Turnus opening the campaign), and may have been taken into F. first in military phraseology, and gradually extended to other senses, the advantage of a form which could not be confounded with the name of the province Champagne perhaps conducing to the result. For ultimate etymology see CHAMPAIGN, CAMPANIA.]

  † 1.  A tract of open country; a plain; = CHAMPAIGN. Obs.

1628.  Hobbes, Thucyd., II. (1629), 142. The River Achelous … running through … most part of the Champaigne of Acarnania.

1647.  Clarendon, Hist. Reb., II. VI. 34. There was between the Hill and the Town a fair Campaigne.

1717.  Garth, Ovid’s Met., XIV. 494 (J.). Where Tyber … fattens, as he runs, the fair Campain.

1765.  Sterne, Tr. Shandy (1802), VII. v. 12. The outworks stretch a great way into the campaign.

  † 2.  Open country as opposed to hills, woods, etc.; country as opposed to town; = CHAMPAIGN.

[a. 1667.  Cowley, Dang. in Much Company, Wks. 1710, II. 762. To be sure not to venture his Person any longer in the open Campaign, to retreat and entrench himself.

1684.  Scanderbeg Rediv., ii. 9. For that the Countrey is there Composed of vast Campagn and level Woods, very fit for Hunting.

1699.  Maundrell, in Journ. Jerus. (1714), T ij b. We Hunt in the most delightful Campaign.

1706.  Collier, Refl. Ridic., 194. They that see you in the Campaign in the Summer.

  3.  Mil. The continuance and operations of an army ‘in the field’ for a season or other definite portion of time, or while engaged in one continuous series of military operations constituting the whole, or a distinct part, of a war. (In Ger. Feldzug.)

  The name arose in the earlier conditions of warfare, according to which an army remained in quarters (in towns, garrisons, fortresses or camps) during the winter, and on the approach of summer issued forth into the open country (nella campagna, dans la campagne) or ‘took the field,’ until the close of the season again suspended active operations. Hence the name properly signifying the ‘being in the field,’ was also applied, now to the season or time during which the army kept the field, and now to the series of operations performed during this time. In the changed conditions of modern warfare, the season of the year is of much less importance, and a campaign has now no direct reference to time or season, but to an expedition or continuous series of operations bearing upon a distinct object, the accomplishment or abandonment of which marks its end, whether in the course of a week or two, or after one or more years. The history of the sense is seen in early Dictionaries: e.g.

  1656.  Blount, Glossogr., s.v., A word much used among Souldiers, by whom the next Campaine is usually taken for the next Summers Expedition of an Army, or its taking the field.

1721.  Bailey, Campain, [in Military Affairs] the space of time every Year, an Army continues in the Field, during a War. Ibid. (1730–6), A summer’s war.

1755.  Johnson, Campaign, the time for which any army keeps the field, without entering into quarters.

  1647.  Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. I. 49. After he had made two or three Campaigns … he came in the leisure of the Winter to visit his Friends in England.

1667.  Pepys, Diary, 28 June. Several commanders that had not money to set them out to the present campagne.

1693.  Mem. Ct. Teckely, I. 37. And prepared themselves to open the Campagn in good time.

1708.  Swift, Predict. for 1708, Wks. 1755, II. I. 153. It will be a glorious campaign for the allies.

1790.  Beatson, Nav. & Mil. Mem., II. 218. The want of success in the last campaign.

1847.  Emerson, Repres. Men, Napoleon, Wks. (Bohn), I. 375. In the Russian campaign he … said ‘I have two hundred millions in my coffers, and I would give them all for Ney.’

  4.  transf. † a. A naval expedition; a voyage or cruise. Obs. (So F. campagne, It. campagna.)

1708.  J. Bion, Suffer. Prot., in Arb., Garner, VI. 404. Being several Campaigns, Chaplain aboard one of the Galleys.

  b.  An expedition or excursion into the country; a summer’s trip or sojourn.

1748.  H. Walpole, Corr., I. 123. A campaign at Twickenham furnishes as little matter for a letter as an abortive one in Flanders.

1749.  Mrs. E. Montagu, Lett. (1813), III. 82. The waters are good … the place agreeable, and you cannot make a better summer’s campaign.

1789.  Wolcott (P. Pindar), Subj. for Painters, 59. A man in rather an exalted station … Made frequent curiosity campaigns; Sometimes caught grass-hoppers.

  c.  Ironworks. The period during which a furnace is in continuous operation.

1871.  Trans. Amer. Inst. Mining Eng., I. 98. By their corrosive action on the lining … they shorten a campaign or run to a few days.

1881.  in Raymond, Mining Gloss.

  5.  fig. Applied to any course of action analogous to a military campaign, either in having a distinct period of activity, or in being of the nature of a struggle, or of an organized attempt aiming at a definite result.

1770.  Junius Lett., xxxix. 201. They … rest from the … labours of the campaign.

1773.  Macklin, Man of World (1793), 36. Their amorous equipage for the nuptial campaign.

1868.  Dickens, Lett. (1880), II. 388. I am now preparing for a final reading campaign.

1887.  Pall Mall Gaz, 29 March, 4/2. A campaign is being carried on in Paris just now against the interlopers who sell tickets at the doors of the theatres.

  b.  esp. in Politics, An organized course of action designed to arouse public opinion throughout the country for or against some political object, or to influence the voting at an election of members of the legislature. c. The Plan of Campaign in Ireland, entered upon in the winter of 1886–7, a method of conducting operations against landlords who refused to lower rents, according to which the tenants in a body were to pay what they considered the fair rent into the hands of a political leader, charged to retain it until the landlord should accept the sum offered, less any amount subsequently expended in maintaining the struggle.

1880.  Webster, Supp., Campaign, (U.S. Politics) the season of excitement and effort preceding an election; canvass.

1884.  Boston (Mass.) Jrnl., 20 Sept. The attempt of the Republicans to introduce the tariff as one of the issues of the campaign.

1886.  United Ireland, 20 Nov., 272/2. The ‘Plan of Campaign’ as laid down in United Ireland of October 23rd.

1886.  Pall Mall Gaz., 24 Nov., 2/1. The plan of campaign is very taking in its simplicity. Its essence consists in the the proposal that whenever a landlord refuses to settle at the abatement proposed by his tenants…. The reduced rent of all the tenantry is to be banked with an unknown individual, who is to act as paymaster and dole out weekly allowances to such of the tenants as are evicted by the landlord for non-payment of rent.

Mod.  The electoral campaign has now begun in earnest.

  † 6.  Short for campaign-coat, -lace: see 7 b. Obs.

1690.  ? Evelyn, Mundus Muliebris, 16. Campaine. A kind of narrow picked Lace.

1692.  Tryon, Good Housew., i. 7. A Flannel Shirt, and a Wastcoat, Doublet, Coat, and Campaign, a Gown over all lin’d.

  7.  attrib. and in Comb.: a. Of the nature of open country; belonging to the open country.

1628.  Hobbes, Thucyd., II. (1629), 141. Those Thracians that inhabite the Champaigne Countrey beyond Strymon.

1634.  Holland, Pliny, II. 84. The Campaign Rose bloweth early and is very forward.

1768.  G. White, Selborne, xv. 43. The stone curlew … abounds in all the campaign parts of Hampshire and Sussex.

1882.  Elwes, trans. Capello & Ivens’ Benguella to Yacca, II. iv. 77. We plunged into the vast campaign country to the north.

  Of, belonging to, or used on a military campaign: as campaign-coat, -lace, -oven, -shoes, -wig. (Some of these were perhaps merely catch names referring to the famous campaigns of Marlborough.)

1677.  Lond. Gaz., No. 1180/4. Wearing a brown serge Sute, and a brownish *Campaine Coat.

1690.  B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Campaign-coat, originally only such as Soldiers wore, but afterwards a Mode in Cities.

1725.  New Cant. Dict., Campaign-coat, in a Canting Sense, the ragged, tatter’d … Coat, worn by Beggars and Gypsies, in order to move Compassion.

1682.  Lond. Gaz., No. 1769/4. A green Mohair Silk Petticoat, with a *Campain Gold and Silver Lace.

1708.  Kersey, *Campaign-Oven, a portable Oven … us’d by Confectioners.

1730–6.  Bailey, Campaign oven, a portable oven made of copper, of a convenient length, and about three or four inches high, being raised on feet, so that fire may be kindled underneath, and on the cover or lid of it are ledges to hold fire also.

1693.  Lond. Gaz., No. 2840/4. A Highway Robber … with a *Campagne Perriwig.

1691.  Satyr agst. French, 7.

1688.  R. Holme, Armoury, II. xviii. § 118. A *Campaign Wig, hath Knots or Bobs (or a Dildo on each side) with a Curled Forehead, a Travelling Wig.

1846–60.  Fairholt, Costume, Gloss., A wig called a ‘campaign-wig’ was introduced from France about 1712. It was plain, and close-fitting.