tawny

From Middle English tawne, from Anglo-Norman tawné, from Old French tané, past participle of taner (“to tan”), from tan (“tanbark, tawny color”), from Gaulish tanno (“holm oak”), from Proto-Celtic *tanno- (“green oak”), of uncertain further origin.[1] Compare Breton tann, Old Irish caerthann (“rowan”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɔːni/
• Rhymes: -ɔːni

tawny (comparative tawnier, superlative tawniest)

1. Of a light brown to brownish orange color.
   • 1865, Henry David Thoreau, Cape Cod, Chapter I. "The Shipwreck", page 14.

     There were the tawny rocks, like lions couchant, defying the ocean, whose waves incessantly dashed against and scoured them with vast quantities of gravel.

   • 1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

     They fell a-twittering among themselves once more, and this time their intoxicating babble was of violet seas, tawny sands, and lizard-haunted walls.

• fulvous

• tan

tawny

1. A light brown to brownish orange colour.

• tawny owl
• tawny port

• Wyant, wanty