Cameroon
name, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A sheep of a domesticated breed from West Africa.
- 2 A Conservative Party member with green or social liberal leanings, supporting the policies of David Cameron. UK
"He fears that in downplaying traditional Conservative causes, in changing the party to be more in tune with modern Britain, the Cameroons have in effect accepted that they won't change the country much in office."
- 1 A country in Central Africa. Official name: Republic of Cameroon. Capital: Yaoundé. It also claims Ambazonia.
"Security officials say such a move makes it easy for Boko Haram to infiltrate Cameroon and gather vital security information."
Example
More examples"Ewondo is the language spoken by the Ewondo tribe of Cameroon."
Etymology
Borrowed from French Cameroun, from Portuguese Rio dos Camarões (“river of prawns”), a name given to the Wouri river estuary, in 1472 by the sailors of the Portuguese explorer Fernão do Pó (a.k.a. Fernando Pó), raving about the abundance of shrimps of the species Lepidophthalmus turneranus (the Cameroon ghost shrimp) in the river; camarão itself is from Latin cammarus (“lobster”), from Ancient Greek κάμμαρος (kámmaros, “a kind of lobster or shrimp”).
Alteration of Cameron, influenced by -oon.
Related phrases
More for "cameroon"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.