bivvybivyn.
/ˈbɪvi/, U.S. /ˈbɪvi/ Army slang.
A temporary shelter for troops; a small tent.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > military organization > logistics > quartering > [noun] > encamping > temporary hut or tent
cabin?a1400
cabinet1579
bivvy1916
basher1944
1916 Anzac Bk. 142 We lays down in the open W'en our ‘bivvies’ isn't dug.
1918 Chrons. N.Z.E.F. 13 Feb. 9/1 We arrived at our allotted spot, somewhere in Palestine, and erected our bivvies.
1920 Blackwood's Mag. May 596/2 The Egyptian Camel Corps and Gurkhas arrived, bringing ‘Bivies’ and other luxuries.
1920 Blackwood's Mag. May 606/1 Tying his horse to my bivy-pole.
1925 Glasgow Herald 30 Mar. 10 That word was ‘tambu’, meaning a rough and ready shelter made of branches, planks, corrugated iron, a ‘bivvy’, in fact.
1947 D. M. Davin Gorse blooms Pale 199 Snow and me were sitting outside the bivvy.
Draft additions March 2006
Mountaineering slang. A night spent in the open air without a tent; an open air encampment. Cf. bivouac n. 2, bivvy v. 1.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > dwelling place or abode > camp or encampment > [noun] > type of
ordu1673
chantier1823
douar1829
outcamp1844
log-camp1858
lumbering-camp1858
yayla1864
refugee camp1865
cow-camp1873
gypsyry1873
work camp1877
tent town1878
logging-camp1880
lumber-camp1882
town camp1885
base camp1887
line-camp1888
wanigan1890
isolation camp1891
tent village1899
sheep-camp1911
safari camp1912
jungle1914
transit camp1919
Siwash camp1922
health camp1925
tent city1934
fly camp1939
bivvy1961
1961 Webster's 3rd New Internat. Dict. Eng. Lang. Bivvy, n. or vb., slang: bivouac. [Bivouac n...1b an encampment under little or no shelter... 2 a camping out for the night.]
1982 Backpacker Dec.–Jan. 49/1 It then took me half an hour to arrange my gear in the three-foot-deep bivy hole I'd dug.
1990 Mountain July 24/2 It's hard to describe that bivvi: a tedious fight with the night, cold, loneliness.
2003 Amer. Alpine Jrnl. 45 18 This was the real stuff, one of the typical miserable alpine bivvies that you read about in the American Alpine Journal.
Draft additions March 2006
bivvy bag n. Mountaineering slang = bivouac bag n. at bivouac n. Additions.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > a building > furniture and fittings > bed > bedding > [noun] > sleeping bag
fleabag1811
body bag1885
bedroll1910
fart sack1943
bivouac sack1961
bivvy bag1982
1982 Daily Tel. 5 Feb. 15/6 Caught alfresco in the Himalayas, she will sleep in a ‘bivvi bag’.
2002 J. Simpson Beckoning Silence (2003) xiii. 203 I ran quickly through a tick list of the items I had packed in my rucksack. Stove, gas cylinders.., bivi bag, camcorder, spare batteries and film, contact lens case.
Draft additions March 2006
bivvy sack n. (also bivvy sak) Mountaineering slang = bivouac bag n. at bivouac n. Additions.
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1977 Backpacker Dec. 52/2 (advt.) Bomb proof super bivvy sak with Gore-Tex laminate... It's the perfect answer for back-packers, climbers, canoeists and general campers who want more than sleeping bag protection without carrying a tent.
2005 Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News (Nexis) 24 July g1 It probably helped that we used the deflated packrafts, the PFDs and our packs for insulation beneath our bivvy sacks.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1933; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
bivvyv.
/ˈbɪvi/, U.S. /ˈbɪvi/ slang (originally Military).
1. intransitive. To spend the night in the open air without a tent (esp. in a bivvy bag); to camp with little or no shelter. Occasionally with down, out.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabiting temporarily > camping or encamping > camp or encamp [verb (intransitive)] > without tent
siwash1938
bivvy1943
1943 P. W. Rainier Pipeline to Battle iii. i. 164 That night..the French Foreign Legion..bivvied down just outside the fence.
1982 Backpacker Dec.–Jan. 51/1 We skied down through wind and ice crust, and when the avalanche danger became too great bivied at the top of a cliffband as another storm moved in.
1995 On the Edge Aug. 62/2 Whatever your reason to bivvy, be it intended or otherwise, there are innumerable ways to make yourself as comfortable as possible given the amount of equipment available.
2003 J. Grigg What Next? xiv. 160 We also bivvied out, which was fun but weird as we experienced 24 hour daylight!
2. intransitive. Angling. With up. To use a small tent for shelter whilst fishing, esp. for several days.
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1992 Angling Times 22 Apr. 3/1 On his first visit to the day-ticket fishery Richard Watts opted to bivvy-up on Orchid lake for his two-day session.
1995 Carpworld July 136/1 I am seriously considering never bivvying up on this lake again.
2003 S. Wales Evening Post (Nexis) 4 Sept. 57 Both the pleasure lake and the central lake have been very busy this week, with quite a few junior anglers bivvying up around the lakes.
Derivatives
ˈbivvying n.
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1991 M. Gray First Fifty (BNC) 58 Maybe they're top mountaineers training for a Himalyan expedition that requires constant overnight bivvying on icy rock faces.
1995 On the Edge Aug. 66/2 Most people who are going to take bivvying seriously will need a good bivvy bag.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, March 2006; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1916
v.1943