brown

From Middle English broun, from Old English brūn (“brown; dark; dusky”), from Proto-Germanic *brūnaz (compare West Frisian brún, Dutch bruin, German braun), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH- (compare Ancient Greek φρύνη (phrúnē), φρῦνος (phrûnos, “toad”); Latin brunneus (“brown”)), compare Lithuanian bė́ras (“brown”), Sanskrit बभ्रु (babhrú, “reddish-brown”)).

• IPA^(key): /bɹaʊn/

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• Rhymes: -aʊn

brown (countable and uncountable, plural browns)

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

   The browns and greens in this painting give it a nice woodsy feel.

   brown colour:  

2. (snooker, countable) One of the colour balls used in snooker, with a value of 4 points.
3. (uncountable) Black tar heroin.
4. (slang, archaic, countable) A copper coin.
5. (sometimes capitalised, countable) A person of Middle Eastern, Latino or South Asian descent; a brown-skinned person; someone of mulatto or biracial appearance.
6. (entomology) Any of various nymphalid butterflies of subfamily Satyrinae (formerly the family Satyridae).
7. (entomology) Certain species of nymphalid butterflies of subfamily Satyrinae, such as those of the genera Heteronympha and Melanitis.

• mummy brown

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

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

1. Having a brown colour.

   Antonym: nonbrown

2. (obsolete) Gloomy.
3. (sometimes capitalized) Of or relating to any of various ethnic groups having dark pigmentation of the skin.
   1. (US) Latino
   2. (of Asians) South Asian
   3. (of East Asians) Southeast Asian

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

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

1. (intransitive) To become brown.

   Fry the onions until they brown.

   • 2006, Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma, The Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 269:

     The chicken was browning nicely, the skin beginning to crisp and take on the toasty tones of oiled wood.

2. (cooking, transitive) To cook something until it becomes brown.

   Brown the onions in a large frying pan.

3. (intransitive, transitive) To tan.

   Light-skinned people tend to brown when exposed to the sun.

4. (transitive) To make brown or dusky.
   • 1807, Joel Barlow, The Columbiad:

     A trembling twilight o'er the welkin moves, / Browns the dim void and darkens deep the groves.

5. (transitive) To give a bright brown colour to, as to gun barrels, by forming a thin coating of oxide on their surface.

   1860, Andrew Ure, Ure’s Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines‎, page 463:

   It is mixed uniformly with olive oil, and rubbed upon the iron slightly heated, which is afterwards exposed to the air, till the wished-for degree of browning is produced.

6. (demography, transitive, intransitive, slang, ethnic slur, usually derogatory, offensive) To turn progressively more Middle Eastern, Hispanic or Latino, in the context of the population of a geographic region.

   the browning of America

• brunet
• burnet

• golding

Borrowed from English brown.

• IPA^(key): /brou̯n/

brown (feminine singular brown, plural brown)

1. brown