sunburn

Etymology

It is formed from English sun + burn.^[2][3][4][5] The OED says that the verb was formed after the older noun sunburning and the adjective sunburnt, and the noun after the verb and sunburnt;^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged takes the verb as a back-formation from sunburned,^[6] and Klein from sunburnt.^[7] Etymonline notes that sunburnt (about 1400) is older than sunburned (about 1500), and that Middle English had sonne-brenninge for the condition (late 14th century).^[3] The OED compares Old English sunbryne, sunburn, formed from the Old English words for sun and burning,^[2][8] but it does not derive the modern word from it.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a verb, to redden or inflame the skin by too much sun, and of a person or the skin to become so: both transitive and intransitive uses first appear in 1530, in John Palsgrave's Lesclarcissement de la langue francoyse.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the transitive verb to 1530 and Etymonline to the 1520s,^[6][3] and the Shorter Oxford dates the word to late Middle English, first as the past participle.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The adjective sunburnt is recorded from before 1500,^[2] and the verb sunburn was long most common in its past participles sunburnt and sunburned.^[5] The noun, the reddened, sore state of skin burned by the sun, follows in 1584, in William Warner's Pan his Syrinx;^[2] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster Unabridged date it to the 1650s and 1652.^[3][6] In the 19th century the word passed to plants: from 1833 the verb was used of plant tissue harmed by strong light, and the noun took that sense in 1865.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also records sunburn in potato tubers turned green by light, and the discoloration of fruit that ripens in too much sun.^[6] In the 20th century sunburn was also a light brown or tan colour (1923), a sense the OED now calls rare,^[2] and Collins gives it as another word for suntan.^[9]

Timeline

• 1530 – verb, to redden or inflame the skin by too much sun; also intransitive, to become sunburnt.^[2][6]
• 1584 – noun, the condition of skin burned by the sun.^[2]
• 1833 – verb, of plant tissue, to be damaged by the sun.^[2]
• 1865 – noun, damage to plants caused by the sun.^[2]
• 1891 – noun, in various extended uses.^[2]
• 1923 – a light brown or tan colour.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Inflammation and reddening of the skin, sometimes with blistering, caused by too much exposure to the sun: She came back from the beach with a bad sunburn.^{[10][6][9][2]}
2. Damage to plants or fruit caused by strong sunlight; sunscald.^[6][2]
3. Another word for suntan; a light brown colour like that of tanned skin.^[9][2]

Verb

1. To burn or redden the skin of someone by exposure to the sun.^[6][10][2]
2. To become burned or reddened by the sun: His fair skin sunburns easily.^[6][10][2]

Related words

• sun
• burn
• sunburnt
• suntan

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin