Etymology
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brown (adj.)

Old English brun "dark, dusky," developing a definite color sense from 13c., from Proto-Germanic *brunaz (source also of Old Norse brunn, Danish brun, Old Frisian and Old High German brun, Dutch bruin, German braun), from PIE root *bher- (2) "bright; brown."

The Old English word also had a sense of "brightness, shining," preserved only in burnish. The Germanic word was adopted into Romanic (Middle Latin brunus, Italian and Spanish bruno, French brun).

Brown sugar is from 1704. Brown Bess, slang name for old British Army flintlock musket, is recorded by 1785. Brown study "state of mental abstraction or meditation" is from 1530s; OED says the notion is "gloomy." Brown-paper "kind of coarse, stout, unbleached paper used for wrapping" is from 1650s.

also from 13c.

brown (v.)

c. 1300, "to become brown," from brown (adj.). From 1560s as "to make brown." Related: Browned; browning.

also from c. 1300

brown (n.)

c. 1300, "a brown thing or part of a thing;" c. 1600, "brown color;" from brown (adj.).

also from c. 1300

Entries linking to brown

burnish (v.)

early 14c., "polish by friction," from Old French burniss- present-participle stem of burnir, metathesis of brunir "to shine, gleam, sparkle" (trans.), also "polish, make sparkle, make bright, shine," from brun "brown; polished," from Frankish or some other Germanic source (compare Old High German brun, Old Norse brunn "bright, polished; brown"), from Proto-Germanic *brunaz (from PIE root *bher- (2) "bright; brown"). The connection to "brown" might be explained if the original objects in mind were wooden ones. The meaning "cause to glow, clean (something) until it shines" is from late 14c. Related: Burnished; burnishing.

auburn (adj.)

early 15c., "whitish, yellowish-white, flaxen-colored," from Old French auborne, from Medieval Latin alburnus "off-white, whitish," from Latin albus "white" (see alb). The meaning shifted 16c. to "reddish-brown" under influence of Middle English brun "brown" (see brown (adj.)) which also changed the spelling. Since the sense-shift it has generally been limited to hair. As a noun by 1852.

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Trends of brown

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/. Ngrams are probably unreliable.

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updated on October 25, 2022

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