fawn

English
A fawn.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /fɔːn/
  • Rhymes: -ɔːn
  • Homophone: faun

Etymology 1

From Old French faon[1], from Vulgar Latin *fetonem, from Latin fētus (“offspring, young”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁(y)- (“to suckle, nurse”)

Noun

fawn (plural fawns)

  1. A young deer.
  2. A pale brown colour tinted with yellow, like that of a fawn.
    fawn colour:  
  3. (obsolete) The young of an animal; a whelp.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Holland
      [The tigress] […] followeth […] after her fawns.
Derived terms
Translations

Adjective

fawn (not comparable)

  1. Of the fawn colour.
Derived terms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb

fawn (third-person singular simple present fawns, present participle fawning, simple past and past participle fawned)

  1. (intransitive) To give birth to a fawn.

Etymology 2

From Middle English fawnen, from Old English fahnian, fagnian, fæġnian (“to rejoice, make glad”)[2]. Akin to Old Norse fagna (“to rejoice”)[3]. See also fain.

Verb

fawn (third-person singular simple present fawns, present participle fawning, simple past and past participle fawned)

  1. (intransitive) To exhibit affection or attempt to please.
  2. (intransitive) To seek favour by flattery and obsequious behaviour (with on or upon).
    • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare
      You showed your teeth like apes, and fawned like hounds.
    • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton
      Thou with trembling fear, / Or like a fawning parasite, obeyest.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Macaulay
      courtiers who fawn on a master while they betray him
    • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 2, in The Mirror and the Lamp‎:
      That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired.
    Synonyms: grovel, wheedle, soft-soap, toady
  3. (intransitive, of a dog) To show devotion or submissiveness by wagging its tail, nuzzling, licking, etc.
Derived terms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

See also
  • Appendix:Colors

References
  1. “fawn” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.
  2. Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.
  3. fawn in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Welsh

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /vau̯n/

Verb

fawn

  1. Soft mutation of bawn.
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