brown

English Online Dictionary. What means brown‎? What does brown mean?

English

Etymology

From Middle English broun, from Old English brūn (“brown; dark; dusky”), from Proto-West Germanic *brūn, from Proto-Germanic *brūnaz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH-. Doublet of bruin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɹaʊn/
• Rhymes: -aʊn

Noun

brown (countable and uncountable, plural browns)

2. (countable and uncountable) A colour like that of chocolate or coffee.

3. (snooker, countable) One of the colour balls used in snooker, with a value of 4 points.
4. (uncountable) Black tar heroin.
5. (slang, archaic, countable) A copper coin.
6. A brown horse or other animal.
7. (sometimes capitalised, countable, informal, ethnic slur) A person of mostly Latin American (or Latino), Middle Eastern/North African, South Asian, and sometimes Southeast Asian, Pacific Islander, or rarely Native American descent; a brown-skinned person; someone of mulatto, or biracial appearance.
8. (entomology) Any of various nymphalid butterflies of subfamily Satyrinae (formerly the family Satyridae), such as those of the genera Heteronympha and Melanitis.
9. (informal) A brown trout (Salmo trutta).
10. (hunting, as "the brown") A mass of birds or animals that may be indiscriminately fired at.

Descendants

• Bislama: braon
• Tok Pisin: braun
• → Welsh: brown
• → Tongan: palauni

Translations

Adjective

brown (comparative browner or more brown, superlative brownest or most brown)

1. Having a brown colour.
2. (obsolete) Gloomy.
3. (sometimes capitalized) Of or relating to any of various ethnic groups having dark pigmentation of the skin.
   1. (US) Latino/Latin American
   2. (US, loosely, vague) of color.
   3. (of Asians and Africans) South Asian or sometimes Middle Eastern or North African
   4. (of East-Eurasian ancestry) Southeast Asian, Pacific Islander, or sometimes Native American
5. Not green (environmentally irresponsible); anti-green (against environmental protection).

   Near-synonyms: nongreen, antigreen

Related terms

• (environmentally irresponsible): brownfield

Descendants

• American Sign Language: B@Cheek-PalmForward B@Jaw-PalmForward

Translations

Verb

brown (third-person singular simple present browns, present participle browning, simple past and past participle browned)

1. (intransitive) To become brown.

   Synonyms: (chiefly literary and poetic) embrown, brownify
2. (cooking, transitive) To cook something until it becomes brown.
3. (intransitive, transitive) To tan.

4. (transitive) To make brown or dusky.

   Synonym: (chiefly literary and poetic) embrown
5. (transitive) To give a bright brown colour to, as to gun barrels, by forming a thin coating of oxide on their surface.
6. (demography, transitive, intransitive, slang, ethnic slur, usually derogatory, offensive) To turn progressively more Hispanic or Latino, in the context of the population of a geographic region.

Translations

Derived terms

Related terms

• brunet
• burnet

See also

• golding

Welsh

Etymology

Borrowed from English brown.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /brou̯n/
• Rhymes: -ou̯n

Adjective

brown (feminine singular brown, plural brown, equative browned, comparative brownach, superlative brownaf)

1. brown

See also

Mutation