bivouac

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a temporary camp, especially one used by soldiers or mountaineers and offering little or no shelter

   The patrol established a bivouac in a hollow below the ridge.

2. 2
   verb

   to camp temporarily, usually outdoors and with minimal shelter

   The climbers had to bivouac on a narrow ledge overnight.

Borrowed from French bivouac, from Swiss German or Alemannic biwacht, 'additional watch or guard,' combining a form meaning 'by, additional' with Wacht, 'watch.' The military term shifted from a night watch kept outside fortifications to the improvised camp occupied by that watch, then broadened to any temporary open-air camp.

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