Etymology Dictionary

CAMPAIGN,  a large field; the period during which an army keeps the field.  (F.,—L.)   The word occurs in Burnet, Hist. of his Own Time, an. 1666.—F. campaigne, an open field, given in Cotgrave as a variation of campagne, which he explains by 'a plaine field, large plain.'—Lat. campania, a plain, preserved in the name Campania, formerly given to the level country near Naples.—Lat. campus, a field.   See Camp.   Der. campaign-er.   ¶ Shak. uses champaign (old edd. champion), K. Lear, i. 1. 65, for 'a large tract of land.'   This is from the O.F. champagne, the standard form; the form campagne belongs properly to the Picard dialect; see Brachet, Hist. Fr. Gram. p. 21 for the correct statement, which is incorrectly contradicted in the translation of his Dict., s.v. campagne.