Etymologically
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brown

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 15:31. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /braʊn/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English broun,[2][3] inherited from Old English brūn (“dark, dusky”),[4][3][5] from Proto-Germanic *brūnaz,[4][6] the source also of Dutch bruin, German braun and Old Norse brúnn,[4][3] from Proto-Indo-European *bher- (“bright; brown”).[4][5] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster relate it to Greek phrýnē “toad” and Sanskrit babhrú “reddish-brown”,[3][2] and it is related to bear and beaver.[3] In Middle English it was reinforced by Old French brun, itself from Germanic.[6] The Germanic word was borrowed into the Romance languages: Medieval Latin brunus, Italian and Spanish bruno, French brun.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English brūn is found in glossaries about 700,[3] meaning “dark, dusky”;[4][7] it is in the surname Brunloc, “brown-haired”, before 1130.[3]

Semantic evolution

In Old English the word meant simply “dark”,[8] and also “shining”, a sense kept only in burnish;[4][6] it took on a definite colour sense in the 13th century.[4][8] The idea of darkness led to “gloomy”, as in brown study, “a state of deep thought”, from the 1530s.[4][8] Brown sugar is from 1704, brown paper from the 1650s,[4] and Brown Bess, the British Army musket, is recorded by 1785.[4] The noun, a brown thing, is from about 1300, and the colour itself from about 1600.[4] In slang a copper coin was a brown from 1812.[7] The verb, “to become brown”, is from about 1300, and “to make brown”, as in cooking, from the 1560s.[4][7]

Timeline

  • c. 700 – Old English brūn, dark.[3]
  • 13th century – the colour sense.[4]
  • c. 1300 – noun, a brown thing; verb, to become brown.[4]
  • 1530s – brown study.[4]
  • 1560s – verb, to make brown.[4]
  • c. 1600 – noun, the colour brown.[4]
  • 1650s – brown paper.[4]
  • 1704 – brown sugar.[4]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Of a colour like wood or earth, between red and yellow and fairly dark.
  2. Having a dark or suntanned skin.

Noun

  1. The colour brown, or a brown pigment.

Verb

  1. To make or become brown.
  2. To cook until brown.

Word family

  • brownish
  • brownness
  • browny
  • brownfield
  • brunet
  • burnet
  • tawny
  • mahogany
  • auburn
  • burnish
  • brunette
  • bruin
  • bear
  • beaver

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press