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So we have three verbs, at least, that mean for troops to stay somewhere:
billet
canton
bivouac
...course there's "to camp" or "to camp out"....
But I suppose billet, bivouac, and canton are military references.
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old hand
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military references
We civilians also use billet. When I was in high school and we went to, say, a basketball tournament far enough away that we would have to spend the night, we would be billeted out (stayed at private residences of people in the community) and the place you stayed at was your billet.
Having written the word billet too many times it now looks like a nonsense word.
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I used to have a real Action Man (not one of the new batch, recreated for much younger kids, that you can't even dress  [/rant]) who had a "bivouac". It was basically a canvas sleeping bag thingy with a built-in anorak hood. That implies that "to bivouac" should mean to adopt a very temporary form of shelter, effectively sleeping on the move.
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From this
dictionary: http://humanities.uchicago.edu/forms_unrest/webster.form.html
Canton (Page: 212)
Can"ton, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Cantoned ; p. pr. & vb. n. Cantoning.]
[Cf.
F.cantonner.]
1. To divide into small parts or districts; to mark off or separate, as
a distinct portion or division.
They canton out themselves a little Goshen in the intellectual
world. Locke.
2. (Mil.) To allot separate quarters to, as to different parts or
divisions of an army or body of troops.Ed. note: Although AHD on line recognizes the verb canton in its etymology of cantonment and supplies a hyperlink to the entry for canton, it does not recognize the verb form in the hyperlinked entry. B&M AHD does recognize the verb.
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In reply to:
They canton out themselves a little Goshen in the intellectual
world. Locke.
...Terrific! I love this quote!
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I agree with you, TEd R. Been ages since I heard the term. My recollection is that a contonment was an area set apart in a larger area for use by a special group. For instance : on a permanent military base - and area of a couple of buildings, mess hall etc., for use by Special Forces which are technically part of the whole but in a practical sense operate as a separate unit.
I've also heard it used to mean a separate area for combatants, totally self-sufficient - set up within or abuting a larger, less organized area usually of civilians.
When we were stationed in the Philippines (1967-68) there were a number of off-base housing areas owned by Philippinos which were approved for occupation (rental housing) by the military. They were often called cantonments. Now, they are all covered in ashes from the eruption of Pinatubo, or so I am advised.
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Interesting that these words get confused. I've never heard of "canton" being used as a verb. However, "cantonment" was frequently used in the British army in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, usually as somewhere that an army would stay for some time, for instance when they were on picket on a border or during a longer lull in the fighting or during the winter. George Washington referred to the Continental army being in cantonments for the winter after what, Valley Forge? It was about the same time that the newly-fledged American government first learned that price ceilings on the staples necessary to feed an army don't work, a lesson they've had to relearn every generation since!
The term "bivouac", on the other hand was used to refer to a makeshift encampment created in a hurry when the army was on the move. This is the source of its modern usage in hiking/tramping and mountaineering. When you're climbing and intend to be out overnight and are unlikely to be able to pitch a tent, you take a large double-skinned goretex bag with you, called a bivvy bag. It usually has ropes attached to it which you can secure to screws or pitons set into ice or rock to secure yourself to the mountain. You generally get into your sleeping bag in a semi-seated or reclining position on a ledge and stuff yourself inside the bivvy bag as best you can. It's temporary and usually done in a hurry, hence the term "bivvy (bivouac) bag". It's also usually damnably uncomfortable, but that's another story!
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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