Kemp
adj, name, noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A coarse or bristly hair, whisker; (in the plural) knotty hairs that will not felt. countable, dialectal, obsolete, uncountable
- 2 A contest in work, etc. Scotland, archaic
- 3 A champion; a knight. obsolete
- 4 Rough hair, wool, or fur. countable, dialectal, obsolete, uncountable
- 1 To strive or contend in any way; strive for victory. intransitive, obsolete
- 1 Shaggy; rough. obsolete
- 1 A surname countable, uncountable
- 2 A placename; An unincorporated community in Douglas County, Illinois, United States. countable, uncountable
- 3 A placename; An unincorporated community in Allen County, Ohio, United States. countable, uncountable
- 4 A placename; A small town in Bryan County, Oklahoma, United States. countable, uncountable
- 5 A placename; A small city in Kaufman County, Texas, United States. countable, uncountable
Etymology
From Middle English kempe (“coarse hairs”), from Old English cenep (“moustache; bit (of a bridle, bristling with points)”), from Proto-West Germanic *kanip, from Proto-Germanic *kanipaz (“beard, moustache, whiskers”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵénus (“jaw”). Related to chin.
From Middle English kempe, campe (“shaggy, rough”).
From Middle English kempen, from Old English *cempan (“to do battle, fight”), from Proto-West Germanic *kampijan (“to campaign, do battle”), ultimately from Latin campus.
From Middle English kempe, from Old English cempa (“warrior, fighter, champion”), from Proto-West Germanic *kampijō (“fighter”), ultimately from Latin campus. Doublet of champion. Cognate with literary German Kämpe (“champion, fighter”), German Kempf.
* As an English, Scottish, Dutch, and north/Low German surname, from the noun kemp (“champion, warrior”), similar to Kampf. * As a Dutch and West Flemish occupational surname, from Middle Dutch canep (“hemp”) (see modern hennep). * Also as a Dutch surname Van der Kemp, Brabantine variant of Van der Kamp, from van (“of”) + der (“the”) + kamp (“camp”), related to the first sense above. The place names are from the surname.
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.