acajou

en-noun

acajou (countable and uncountable, plural acajous)

/ˈæ.kəˌd͡ʒu/

Borrowed from French acajou (“cashew”), from Old Tupi akaîu. Doublet of cashew.

acajou:

A moderate reddish brown that is slightly yellower and stronger than mahogany.


brown

brown (countable and uncountable, plural browns)

Bislama: braon

Tok Pisin: braun

→ Welsh: brown

→ Tongan: palauni

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.
cognates
* Dutch bruin
* German braun
* Ancient Greek φρύνη (phrúnē), φρῦνος (phrûnos, “toad”)
* Latin brunneus (“brown”)
* Lithuanian bė́ras (“brown”)
* Sanskrit बभ्रु (babhrú, “reddish-brown”)
* West Frisian brún

heinäperhonen

nymphalid butterfly of subfamily Satyrinae

Many browns and blacks are immigrants — some of whom have not yet become naturalized citizens of the United States.

2005, Kristen A. Myers, Racetalk: Racism Hiding in Plain Sight:

(sometimes capitalised, countable, informal, ethnic slur) A person of Latino, Middle Eastern or South Asian descent; a brown-skinned person; someone of mulatto, or biracial appearance.


henna

en-noun

henna (countable and uncountable, plural hennas)

→ Greek: χένα (chéna)

Borrowed from Arabic حِنَّاء (ḥinnāʔ), the name of the tree used to make the dye, probably from Middle Persian [script needed] (*hannāy-, “to smear, anoint”).

der

Lawsonia inermis
Lawsonia inermis#Translingual

(countable) A shrub, Lawsonia inermis, having fragrant reddish flowers

(countable, uncountable) A reddish plant substance, prepared from the dried leaves of this plant, used for temporary tattoos and hair coloring. Hair colorings range from bright red to earth brown to near black.

henna:

(countable and uncountable) A rich reddish-brown colour.


henna

en-verb

henna (third-person singular simple present hennas, present participle hennaing, simple past and past participle hennaed)

hennas (present singular third-person)
hennaing (participle present)
hennaed (participle past)
hennaed (past)

(transitive) To dye or tattoo with henna.


beige

en-adj

beige (comparative beiger or more beige, superlative beigest or most beige)

beiger (comparative)
more beige (comparative)
beigest (superlative)
most beige (superlative)

Unadapted borrowing from French (dialectal) beige, from Old French bege (“color of undyed wool or cotton”), from an Alpine language (compare Franco-Provençal bézho, Romansch besch (“dull grey”)), from Vulgar Latin *bysseus (“cottony grey”) (compare French bis, Catalan bis, Italian bigio), from Late Latin byssus (“cotton”), from Ancient Greek βύσσος (bússos, “cotton homespun”), from Semitic (compare Hebrew/Aramaic בוץ (būṣ)). Doublet of bice.

der

Dagobert had only one customer, an American who wore square, rimless glasses and a beige suit and looked like a Wall Street tycoon.

1956, Delano Ames, chapter 24, in Crime out of Mind:

Mr. Lauwaert of Sony said he realized that most consumers were not going to buy computers that cost far more than discount beige boxes.

2006 November 23, Michel Marriott, “When Beige Won’t Do”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Having a slightly yellowish gray colour, as that of unbleached wool.


bisque

en-noun

bisque (countable and uncountable, plural bisques)

Borrowed from French bisque, possibly from Biscaye.

lobster bisque

A thick creamy soup made from fish, shellfish, meat or vegetables.


sienna

sienna (countable and uncountable, plural siennas)

From Italian terra di Siena (“earth of Siena”), Siena being the most notable Renaissance location of the clay.

uder

(countable) A form of clay containing iron and manganese.


taupe

en-noun

taupe (countable and uncountable, plural taupes)

Borrowed from French taupe, from Latin talpa (“mole”). Doublet of talpa.

taupe:

A dark brownish-grey colour, the colour of moleskin.

тъмносив

като къртица


russet

russet (countable and uncountable, plural russets)

From Middle English russet, from Anglo-Norman russet, rossat, roset, and Middle French rosset, rousset (“reddish, reddish-brown; a rough wool cloth”), from Middle French rous, rus (“to rouse”) + -et (diminutive suffix); compare Late Latin rossetum, russetum, russeta (“rough wool cloth”), Latin russus (“red”) (from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rewdʰ- (“red”)), Occitan rosseta (“rough wool cloth”).

Of the various kinds of woollens, the cheapest appear to be those which are known by the names of ‘bluett,’ ‘russet,’ and ‘blanket.’ […] The second appears to have been almost uniformly an inferior article; but the third is the cheapest of all. The first two terms point to the colour of the stuff, blanket being undyed stuff. It seems that sometimes russet is understood to be cloth made from black wool.

1866, James E[dwin] Thorold Rogers, “On the Price of Textile Fabrics and Clothing”, in A History of Agriculture and Prices in England: From the Year after the Oxford Parliament (1259) to the Commencement of the Continental War (1793): Compiled Entirely from Original and Contemporaneous Records, volumes I (1259–1400), Oxford: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 575:

A coarse, reddish-brown, homespun fabric; clothes made with such fabric.

vadmal

historical in this tense: red-brown, coarse fabric

Coordinate term: reinette

Russet is the name of a group of apples with distinctive matt brown skin, often spotted or with a faint red flush, and of a flattened lopsided shape. The flesh is crisp and the apples keep well. The flavour is unusual and pearlike. Russets are used both for eating and for cooking.

2014, Alan Davidson, “apple”, in Tom Jaine, editor, The Oxford Companion to Food, 3rd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 30:

A variety of apple with rough, russet-colored skin.


russet

en-adj

russet (comparative more russet, superlative most russet)

more russet (comparative)
most russet (superlative)

Hencefoorth my wooing minde ſhalbe expreſt / In ruſſet yeas, and honeſt kerſie noes.

c. 1595–1596 (date written), W. Shakespere [i.e., William Shakespeare], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues Labors Lost. […] (First Quarto), London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for Cut[h]bert Burby, published 1598, →OCLC; republished as Shakspere’s Loves Labours Lost (Shakspere-Quarto Facsimiles; no. 5), London: W[illiam] Griggs, […], [1880], →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:


russet

en-verb

russet (third-person singular simple present russets, present participle russeting or russetting, simple past and past participle russeted or russetted)

russets (present singular third-person)
russeting (participle present)
russetting (participle present)
russeted (participle past)
russeted (past)
russetted (participle past)
russetted (past)

Pear psylla causes damage when nymphs, feeding at high densities on leaves, produce enough honeydew to drip onto the fruit. A black, sooty mold fungus then grows into the honeydew, distorting and russeting the fruit surface, which substantially lowers its commercial value, […]

1995, T. R. Unruh, P. H. Westigard, K. S. Hagen, “Pear Psylla”, in J. R. Nechols et al., editors, Biological Control in the Western United States: Accomplishments and Benefits of Regional Research Project W-84, 1964–1989 (University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Publication; 3361), Oakland, Calif.: Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of California, →ISBN, page 95:

Cultivars differ greatly in their propensity to russet: the characteristic is heritable but more than one factor seems to be involved[…].

2003, John E. Jackson, “Flowers and Fruits”, in The Biology of Apples and Pears (Biology of Horticultural Crops), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 323:

I surprised my own amazement in the looking glass / where the resinous radiance of a chandelier / russeted the chaise longue and the chiffonier. / Autumn lay over everything I loved.

2007, Eric [Linn] Ormsby, “Time’s Covenant”, in Time’s Covenant: Selected Poems, Emeryville, Ont.: Biblioasis, →ISBN, prologue, stanza 3, page 256:

(transitive, intransitive, of apples, pears, etc.) To develop reddish-brown spots; to cause russeting.


ochre

From Old French ocre and its source Latin ōchra, from Ancient Greek ὤχρα (ṓkhra, “pale yellow”), from ὠχρός (ōkhrós, “pale, ocher”) (modern Greek ωχρός (ochrós)).


maroon

en-adj

maroon (comparative more maroon, superlative most maroon)

more maroon (comparative)
most maroon (superlative)

Etymology tree
Byzantine Greek μάραον (máraon)bor.
Italian marronebor.
French marronbor.
English maroon
Borrowed from French marron (“chestnut; brown”). Compare Spanish marrón. Doublet of marron (“sweet chestnut”).


khaki

en-noun

khaki (countable and uncountable, plural khakis or khakies)

cocky (some accents with the father-bother merger)

Borrowed from Hindustani خاکی / ख़ाकी (xākī), from Classical Persian خاکی (xākī, “dusty, earthy, earth-colored”).

der

1921, War work of the Bureau of Standards, no. 46, page 54.
The English Government for a long time has used a type of pigmented dope cover, khaki colored by iron pigments and lampblack, which is called P. C. 10.

2007, Yuji Matsuki, American Fighters Over Europe: Colors & Markings of USAAF Fighters in WWII, page 4, →ISBN.
At the end of World War I, the U.S. Army Air Service painted everything khaki. This khaki was practically the same as British PC10 and can be considered the basis of the later olive drab color.

In these notes we have used the British rather than the US terms for colours: i.e. 'khaki' here means the drab brown - US 'olive drab' - used for woolen uniforms and 'khaki drill' for the pale yellowish tan - US 'khaki' - used for lightweight summer/tropical dress.

2010, Martin Windrow, French Foreign Legion: Infantry and Cavalry since 1945, →ISBN, page 52:

The very loose seroual trousers were made in both sand-khaki drill, and in winter-weight khaki wool for wear with the M1946 battledress blouse.

khaki green:


sepia

en-noun

sepia (countable and uncountable, plural sepias)

Borrowed from Latin sēpia (“cuttlefish”), from Ancient Greek σηπία (sēpía). Cognate with Italian seppia, Portuguese siba, and Spanish sepia.

bor+

(by extension, countable) A sepia-coloured drawing or photograph.


auburn

en-adj

auburn (comparative more auburn, superlative most auburn)

more auburn (comparative)
most auburn (superlative)

Early Modern English auburn (“brown, reddish brown”) from Middle English aubourne, abron, abroune, abrune (“light brown, yellowish brown, blond”), alteration (due to conflation with Middle English brun (“brown”)) of earlier auborne (“yellowish-white, flaxen”) from Old French auborne, alborne (“blond, flaxen, off-white”) from Medieval Latin alburnus (“whitish”), from Latin albus (“white”). More at albino, brown.

All were watching somebody in the garden with deep interest, their three faces close together: a jovial and round one, a pale one with dark hair, and a fair one whose tresses were auburn. “Don’t push! You can see as well as I,” said Retty, the auburn-haired and youngest girl, without removing her eyes from the window.

1891, Thomas Hardy, chapter XXI, in Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC:

[…]; nor was Miss Wilkinson the ideal: he had often pictured to himself the great violet eyes and the alabaster skin of some lovely girl, and he had thought of himself burying his face in the rippling masses of her auburn hair.

1915, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter XXXIII, in Of Human Bondage, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC:

I never thought I'd meet a girl like you / Meet a girl like you / With auburn hair and tawny eyes

1982, “I Ran (So Far Away)”, performed by A Flock of Seagulls:


hazel

en-noun

hazel (usually uncountable, plural hazels)

From Middle English hasel, from Old English hæsl (“hazel, shrub”), from Proto-West Germanic *hasl, from Proto-Germanic *haslaz (“hazel”), from Proto-Indo-European *kóslos (“hazel”). Cognate with Dutch hazelaar (“hazel”), German Hasel (“hazel”), Swedish hassel (“hazel”), Latin corulus, corylus (“hazel-tree, hazelwood”), Irish coll (“hazel”).

The green turf was velvet underfoot. The blackbirds fluted in the hazels there.

1895, S. R. Crockett, A Cry Across the Black Water:

Have a tree or two the witches particularly like, such as the alder, larch, cypress and hemlock; then, to counteract any possible evil effects, there must be a holly, yew, hazel, elder, mountain ash or juniper.

1940, Rosetta E. Clarkson, Green Enchantments: The Magic Spell of Gardens, The Macmillan Company, page 273:

(countable) A tree or shrub of the genus Corylus, bearing edible nuts called hazelnuts or filberts.

hazel:

(countable and uncountable) A greenish-brown colour, the colour of a ripe hazelnut.

Rossiter W[orthington] Raymond
w:Rossiter W. Raymond


hazel

en-adj

hazel (comparative more hazel or (rare) hazeler, superlative most hazel or (rare) hazelest)

more hazel (comparative)
hazeler (comparative rare)
most hazel (superlative)
hazelest (rare superlative)

As she grew up and her hazel eyes became hazeler and her dark hair darker and her white skin whiter, and her form a sigh on every boy’s lips, she concentrated on one dream.

1956 January 7, James L. Collings, “Syndicates: Oh Marie! Whatta Gal and Whatta Reporter”, in Robert U[tting] Brown, editor, Editor & Publisher, volume 89, number 1, New York, N.Y.: Editor & Publisher Co., Inc., →ISSN, page 40, column 1:

The shrewd eyes, more hazel than her son’s but with the same straight brows, were fixed on Clary’s face.

1986, Robyn Donald, chapter 4, in A Willing Surrender, London: Mills & Boon Limited, →ISBN, page 81:

SAGE: Don’t my eyes look hazeler? (or: periwinkler) / CHLO: (as GARTH) Yes. / SAGE: You said you loved my hazel eyes. (or: periwinkle) Don’t you love them more hazely? (or: periwinkly)

1996, Adryan Russ, Doug Haverty, “Act Two”, in Inside Out, New York, N.Y.: Samuel French, Inc., →ISBN, page 58:

The drummer’s eyes took the small woman in slowly, starting with her face, down to her feet and then back up into the hazelest eyes she’d ever seen.

2005, Sharon Smith, chapter 2, in Into the Dark, Nederland, Tex.: Yellow Rose Books, →ISBN, page 12:

What’s that line on “Hazel Eyes”: “I’ve never seen a set of eyes more hazeler”? [Justin Hawkins:] “I’ve never seen a set of eyes more hazelerer.”

2005 December, Doug Brod, “Burning Sensation”, in Sia Michel, editor, Spin, volume 21, number 12, New York, N.Y., →ISSN, page 73, column 2:

Doolittle had the hazelest eyeballs, the winsomest spinal pelt.

2011, Margaret Fiske, “Sense & Circuitry: Cyberth 1813”, in Peter Archer, Jennifer Lawler, editors, Bad Austen: The Worst Stories Jane Never Wrote, Avon, Mass.: Adams Media, F+W Media, Inc., →ISBN, part 2 (If Jane Could See Us Now), page 96:

His eyes were somewhere indefinite between green and hazel. Sometimes appearing hazeler or greener depending on how the light flickered on them.

2012 March 8, Francine J. Colangelo, chapter 10, in Marah Hein: The Legend of a Viking Woman, Bloomington, Ind.: Balboa Press, Hay House, →ISBN, page 84:

And now I should probably say something, but that would involve words, and WHAT EVEN ARE WORDS, and he’s looking at me with the hazelest eyes and the softest, most upturned mouth.

2017 April 11, Becky Albertalli, chapter 16, in The Upside of Unrequited, New York, N.Y.: Balzer + Bray, HarperCollins Publishers, →ISBN, page 178:

Of a greenish-brown colour. (often used to refer to eye colour)


buff

en-noun

buff (countable and uncountable, plural buffs)

From buffe (“leather”), from Middle French buffle (“buffalo”).

He’s a real history buff. He knows everything there is to know about the civil war.

(informal) A person who is very interested in a particular subject.

liefhebber

a person who is very interested in a particular subject


tan

From a Brythonic language; influenced in form by yan (“one”) in the same series.

(dialect, rare) The second cardinal number two, formerly used in Celtic areas, especially Cumbria and parts of Yorkshire, for counting sheep, and stitches in knitting.


olive

From Middle English olyve, from Old French olive (“olive, olive tree”), from Latin olīva (“olive”), from Etruscan *𐌄𐌋𐌄𐌉𐌅𐌀 (*eleiva) or Proto-Greek *ἐλαίϝα (*elaíwa), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *loiwom (compare Old Church Slavonic лои (loi, “tallow”), Old Armenian եւղ (ewł, “oil”)). Doublet of oliva. Displaced native Old English eleberġe, literally "oil berry."

Olea europaea
Olea europaea#Translingual

A tree, Olea europaea, cultivated since ancient times in the Mediterranean for its fruit and the oil obtained from it.

olive:

A dark yellowish-green color, that of an unripe olive.

(neuroanatomy) An olivary body, part of the medulla oblongata.

a beef olive

olives of veal

(cooking) A small slice of meat seasoned, rolled up, and cooked.

Any shell of the genus Oliva and allied genera; so called from the shape.


olive

en-adj

olive (comparative more olive, superlative most olive)

more olive (comparative)
most olive (superlative)

Appleby[…]rose from his seat when Morales came in. He shook hands urbanely, unbuckled his sword, and laid his kepi on the table, and then sat down with an expression of concern in his olive face which Appleby fancied was assumed.

1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 22, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC:

The “little green men”—faces covered, wearing unmarked olive uniforms, speaking Russian and using Russian weapons—have played a significant role in both the occupation of Crimea and the civil war in eastern Ukraine.¹⁹⁶

2015, Shane R. Reeves, David Wallace, “The Combatant Status of the “Little Green Men” and Other Participants in the Ukraine Conflict”, in International Law Studies, US Naval War College, volume 91, number 361, Stockton Center for the Study of International Law, page 393:

Of a grayish green color, that of an unripe olive.


chestnut

en-noun

chestnut (countable and uncountable, plural chestnuts)

→ Gujarati: ચેસ્ટનટ (cesṭanaṭ)

Formerly chesten nut, from Middle English chesten, Middle English chesteyne, chasteine, from Old English ċisten and reinforced by Old French chastaigne, both from Latin castānea, from Ancient Greek καστάνεια (kastáneia). Compare castanet.

pull someone's chestnuts out of the fire

chestnut:

(uncountable) A dark, reddish-brown colour, as seen on the fruit of the chestnut tree.


cinnamon

cinnamon (countable and uncountable, plural cinnamons)

→ Japanese: シナモン (shinamon)

→ Korean: 시나몬 (sinamon)

→ Maori: hinamona

→ Welsh: synamon

From Middle English synamome, from Old French cinnamone, from Latin cinnamon, cinnamomum, from Ancient Greek κιννάμωμον (kinnámōmon), later κίνναμον (kínnamon), according to Herodotus from Phoenician [Term?], cognate with Hebrew קִנָּמוֹן (qinnāmōn).

tó wónaanídę́ę́ʼ tsin bikáshtʼóózh bitáʼahí bił éʼélʼíní

Cinnamomum verum
Cinnamomum verum#Translingual

Cinnamomum zeylanicum
Cinnamomum zeylanicum

(countable) A small evergreen tree native to Sri Lanka and southern India, Cinnamomum verum or Cinnamomum zeylanicum, belonging to the family Lauraceae.

Cinnamomum cassia
Cinnamomum cassia#Translingual

Several related trees, notably the Indonesian cinnamon (Cinnamomum burmanni) and Chinese cinnamon or cassia (Cinnamomum aromaticum or Cinnamomum cassia).

canyeller

any of related trees in the genus Cinnamomum

(chiefly uncountable) A spice from the dried aromatic bark of the cinnamon tree, either rolled into strips or ground into a powder. The word is commonly used as trade name for spices made of any of the species above.

true cinnamon, the product made of Cinnamomum verum


cinnamon

Containing cinnamon, or having a cinnamon taste.


bronze

bronze (countable and uncountable, plural bronzes)

From French bronze (1511), from Italian bronzo (13th cent.), of uncertain origin; see it for more. First use appears c. 1721 in the writings of Matthew Prior. See cite below.

unc

uncertain

(countable) A work of art made of bronze, especially a sculpture.

She wanted to win the tournament, but had to settle for the bronze after being beaten in the semi-finals.


bronze

en-adj

bronze (comparative more bronze, superlative most bronze)

more bronze (comparative)
most bronze (superlative)

unc

uncertain

The house was a big elaborate limestone affair, evidently new. Winter sunshine sparkled on lace-hung casement, on glass marquise, and the burnished bronze foliations of grille and door.

1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter I, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:


bronze

en-verb

bronze (third-person singular simple present bronzes, present participle bronzing, simple past and past participle bronzed)

bronzes (present singular third-person)
bronzing (participle present)
bronzed (participle past)
bronzed (past)

unc

uncertain

The sun was so low that its level rays shot through the tunnels of the forest and bronzed its ceiling of woven leaves when Bess returned to the clearing.

1925, DuBose Heyward, Porgy, London: Jonathan Cape, Part IV, p. 137:

North is the bay of Acre, lovely in shape, and, far, far beyond, the cloudy vision of Hermon, its huge landscape now only attainable with a police pass—beautifully solitary except for good-looking young men of the police patrols, all fit and bronzed.

1961, Freya Stark, chapter 8, in Dust in the Lion's Paw: Autobiography 1939-1946, New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, page 122:

(transitive) To color bronze; (of the sun) to tan.


chocolate

en-noun

chocolate (countable and uncountable, plural chocolates)

→ Assamese: চক্লেট (soklet)

→ Bengali: চকলেট (cokoleṭ)

→ Burmese: ချောကလက် (hkyau:ka.lak)

→ Cantonese: 朱古力 (zyu¹ gu²⁻¹ lik⁶⁻¹)

→ Hakka: 朱古力

→ Teochew: 朱古力

→ Cebuano: tsokoleyt

→ Chickasaw: chaklit

→ Gujarati: ચોકલેટ (cokleṭ)

→ Hawaiian: kokoleka

→ Hindustani:

desc

→ Hindi: चॉकलेट (cŏkleṭ, cŏkaleṭ), चाकलेट (cākleṭ)

→ Urdu: چاکلیٹ (cāklēṭ)

→ Urdu: چاکلیٹ (cāklēṭ)

→ Irish: seacláid

→ Japanese: チョコレート (chokorēto), チョコ (choko)

→ Taiwanese Hokkien: chio͘-kó͘-lè-tò͘

→ Kannada: ಚಾಕೋಲೆಟ್ (cākōleṭ)

→ Korean: 초콜릿 (chokollit)

→ Malay: coklat

→? Hokkien: 芝居力

→ Malayalam: ചോക്കലേറ്റ് (cōkkalēṟṟŭ)

→ Malayalam: ചോക്കലേറ്റ് (cōkkalēṟṟŭ)

→ Manx: shocklaid

→ Marathi: चॉकलेट (cŏkleṭ)

→ Nepali: चकलेट (cakleṭ)

→ Pashto: چاکلېټ (čākléṭ)

→ Pashto: چاکلېټ (čākléṭ)

→ Persian: چاکلیت (čâklêt) (Dari)

→ Punjabi:

→ Gurmukhi script: ਚੌਕਲੇਟ (caukleṭ)

→ Shahmukhi script: چاکلیٹ (caukleṭ)

→ Scottish Gaelic: teòclaid

→ Shanghainese: 巧克力 (⁵chiau-kheq-liq; ¹chiau-kheq-liq)

→ Mandarin: 巧克力 (qiǎokèlì)

→ Hakka: 巧克力

→ Sindhi: چاڪليٽ

→ Sindhi: چاڪليٽ

→ Sinhalese: චොකලට් (cokalaṭ)

→ Swahili: chokoleti

→ Tamil: சாக்கலேட் (cākkalēṭ)

→ Tamil: சாக்கலேட் (cākkalēṭ)

→ Telugu: చాకొలెట్ (cākoleṭ)

→ Thai: ช็อกโกแลต (chɔ́k-goo-lɛ́t), ช็อกโกเลต (chɔ́k-goo-lét)

→ Welsh: siocled

Etymology tree
Classical Nahuatl chocolatlbor.
Spanish chocolatebor.
English chocolate
Via Spanish chocolate from a Nahuatl word, widely given as chocolātl (with the second element being a reflex of Classical Nahuatl ātl (“water”)), although such a word does not appear in Nahuatl until the mid-18th century according to Karttunen. Dakin and Wichmann propose chicolātl as the original form (saying it survives in several modern Nahuatl dialects) and say the chicol- element refers to a special wooden stick used to prepare chocolate. Another theory is that the prefix came from Yucatec Maya chocol (“hot”).

etymon

Chocolate is a very popular treat.

(chiefly uncountable) A food made from ground roasted cocoa beans.

巧克力

chhiàu-kher-lí / chhiàu-khér-lí / chhiàu-kho-lí


copper

en-adj

copper (comparative more copper, superlative most copper)

more copper (comparative)
most copper (superlative)

Inherited from Middle English coper, from Old English coper, copor (“copper”), from Late Latin cuprum (“copper”), contraction of Latin aes Cyprium (literally “Cyprian brass”), from Ancient Greek Κύπρος (Kúpros, “Cyprus”). Cognate with Dutch koper (“copper”), German Kupfer (“copper”), Icelandic kopar (“copper”).

der

All in a hot and copper sky, / The bloody Sun, at noon, / Right up above the mast did stand, / No bigger than the Moon.

1797–1798 (date written), [Samuel Taylor Coleridge], “The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere”, in Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems, London: […] J[ohn] & A[rthur] Arch, […], published 1798, →OCLC:

She seemed so alive, with her shining eyes and her copper hair and her jokes and funny stories, but there was always a mystery at the center of her life, the sound of wild sobbing my mother said she heard coming through the floor.

1999, Maria M. Gillan, Things My Mother Told Me, page 38:

Having the reddish-brown colour/color of copper.


chamois

Borrowed from Middle French chamois, from Late Latin camox, from Gaulish camox (5th c. AD, Polemius Silvius), probably from an extinct Alpine language (Raetic, Ancient Ligurian), possibly Proto-Indo-European *kem- (“without horns”). Compare also Old High German gamiza (“chamois”) (whence modern German Gämse).


flaxen

From Middle English flaxen, flexon, flexin, from Old English fleaxen (“of flax; flaxen”), equivalent to flax + -en (“made of”). Compare Dutch vlassen.

flaxen:

The couple and their children have flaxen hair.

(of hair) A pale yellow brown as of dried flax; blonde.


brass

en-noun

brass (usually uncountable, plural brasses)

From Middle English bras, bres, from Old English bræs (“brass, bronze”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps representing a backformation from Proto-Germanic *brasnaz (“brazen”), from or related to *brasō (“fire, pyre”). Compare Old Norse and Icelandic bras (“solder”), Icelandic brasa (“to harden in the fire”), Swedish brasa (“a small controlled fire”), Danish brase (“to fry”); French braser ("to solder"; > English braise) from the same Germanic root. Compare also Middle Dutch braspenninc ("a silver coin", literally, "silver-penny"; > Dutch braspenning), Old Frisian bress (“copper”), Middle Low German bras (“metal, ore”).
In the military sense an ellipsis of the brass hats.

unc

uncertain

gloss

"to solder"; > English <i class="Latn mention" lang="en">braise</i>

"a silver coin", literally, "silver-penny"; > Dutch <i class="Latn mention" lang="nl">braspenning</i>

cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey

(music) A class of wind instruments, usually made of metal (such as brass), that use vibrations of the player's lips to produce sound; the section of an orchestra that features such instruments

духов

related to brass instruments (attributive use)


beaver

en-noun

beaver (countable and uncountable, plural beavers)

The beards were false ones. I could see the elastic going over their ears. In other words, I had fallen among a band of criminals who were not wilful beavers, but had merely assumed the fungus for purposes of disguise.

(countable) A beard or a bearded person.

Referring to a beard.
A beard or a bearded person.


camel

→ Coeur d'Alene: keemel

→ Eastern Arrernte: kamule

→ Tsonga: kamela

From Middle English camel, through Old English camel and Old Northern French camel (Old French chamel, modern French chameau), from Latin camēlus, from Ancient Greek κάμηλος (kámēlos), from a Semitic source, ultimately from Proto-Semitic *gamal-; compare Arabic جَمَل (jamal), Hebrew גמל (gamál), Aramaic ܓܡܠܐ (gamlā), Coptic ϭⲁⲙⲟⲩⲗ (camoul). As a marine device, from Dutch. As an ethnic slur, short for camelfucker, camel jockey, etc.

a camel is a horse designed by a committee

it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God

Returne our Mules and emptie Camels backe,
That we may trauell into Siria, […]

c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii:

Achilles! a drayman, a porter, a very camel.

c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:

As sometimes happens in countries of small civilisation, a leader arose from among the Arabs. None knew from where he sprang, and it was said that he had been a camel driver.

1907, W. Somerset Maugham, chapter IV, in The Explorer:

oont

India (Anglo-Indian), Australia, colloquial

A beast of burden, much used in desert areas, of the genus Camelus.

camel:

A light brownish color, like that of a camel (also called camel brown).

(ethnic slur) A person of Middle Eastern origin.


camel

→ Spanish: cámel

[…] try to select accessories that are in the same color family as your coat," says millinery designer Patricia Underwood. To pick up the weave of a brown tweed jacket, for instance, choose a camel hat and black gloves.

Of a light brown color like that of a camel.


sand

sand (usually uncountable, plural sands)

From Middle English sand, from Old English sand, from Proto-West Germanic *samd, from Proto-Germanic *samdaz, from Proto-Indo-European *sámh₂dʰos, from *sem- (“to pour”).
See also West Frisian sân, Dutch zand, German Sand, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian sand, Latin sabulum, Ancient Greek ἄμαθος (ámathos), English dialectal samel (“sand bottom”), Old Irish do·essim (“to pour out”), Latin sentina (“bilge water”), Lithuanian sémti (“to scoop”), Ancient Greek ἀμάω (amáō, “to gather”), ἄμη (ámē, “water bucket”).

enough sense to pound sand into a rathole

sand:

A light beige colour, like that of typical sand.


sand

Of a light beige colour, like that of typical sand.


liver

From Middle English lyvere, lyver, from Old English lifer (“liver”), from Proto-West Germanic *libru, from Proto-Germanic *librō, from Proto-Indo-European *leyp- (“to smear, smudge, stick”), from Proto-Indo-European *ley- (“to be slimy, be sticky, glide”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Líeuwer, Lieuwer (“liver”), West Frisian lever (“liver”), Dutch lever (“liver”), German Leber (“liver”), Danish, Norwegian and Swedish lever (“liver”) (the last three from Old Norse lifr (“liver”)). Related to live.

der

His friend Rothwell, who had the use of the best Laveracks for breeding purposes, wrote him that one of his puppies was liver and white.

2006, Rawdon Briggs Lee, A History and Description of the Modern Dogs of Great Britain & Ireland, →ISBN, page 298:

Of the colour of liver (dark brown, tinted with red and gray).


coffee

en-noun

coffee (countable and uncountable, plural coffees)

coffee [from 1598] (canonical)
coffees (plural)

Tok Pisin: kopi

desc

→ Mon: ကဝ်ဖှဳ

→ Mon: ကဝ်ဖှဳ

→ Gujarati: કૉફી (kŏphī)

→ Hausa: kṑfī

desctree

→ Hindi: कॉफ़ी (kŏfī), काफ़ी (kāfī), कोफ़ी (kofī), कॉफी (kŏphī), काफी (kāphī), कोफी (kophī)
→ Sanskrit: काफी (kāphī)

→ Korean: 커피 (keopi)

→ Maia: kopi

→ Marathi: काफी (kāphī)

→ Marshallese: ko̧pe

→ Navajo: gohwééh

→ Scottish Gaelic: cofaidh

→ Welsh: coffi

Conservative, Received Pronunciation, dated

Etymology tree
Arabic قَهْوَة (qahwa)bor.
Ottoman Turkish قهوهbor.
Italian caffèbor.
Dutch koffiebor.
English coffee
Borrowed from Dutch koffie, from Italian caffè, from Ottoman Turkish قهوه (kahve), from Arabic قَهْوَة (qahwa). Doublet of café and caffè and cognate with the words for "coffee" in other major European languages, most of which are derived from the Turkish and Italian words.

etymon

that and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee

that and a nickel will buy you a cup of coffee

that and twenty-five cents will get you a cup of coffee

coffee:

A pale brown color, like that of milk coffee.


coffee

Of a pale brown colour, like that of milk coffee.


walnut

From Middle English walnote, walnutte, walnotte, from Old English wealhhnutu (“walnut”, literally “foreign nut”), from Proto-Germanic *walhaz (“foreigner”) + *hnuts (“nut”). Cognate with Dutch walnoot, German Walnuss, Swedish valnöt, Icelandic valhneta. Compare more recent term Welsh onion, which also uses Welsh to mean “foreign”.

inh

Having a dark brown colour, the colour of walnut wood.


rust

en-verb

rust (third-person singular simple present rusts, present participle rusting, simple past and past participle rusted)

rusts (present singular third-person)
rusting (participle present)
rusted (participle past)
rusted (past)

From Middle English rusten, from the noun (see above).

It's very common for black cats to rust during the summer.

(intransitive) Of a black cat or its fur, to turn rust-coloured following long periods of exposure to sunlight.


almond

en-noun

almond (countable and uncountable, plural almonds)

From Middle English almond, almaund, from Old French almande, amande, from Vulgar Latin *amendla, *amandula, from Latin amygdala, from Ancient Greek ἀμυγδάλη (amugdálē), of uncertain origin. Influenced by amandus and by many European words of Arabic origin beginning with the Arabic definite article Arabic ال (al-). Compare Spanish almóndiga and Portuguese almôndega (“meatball”) from Andalusian Arabic البُنْدُقَة (“hazelnut”). Doublet of amygdala, amygdale, and mandorla.

doublet

Other plants that produce almond-like nuts:

bitter almond. of variety Prunus amygdalus var. amara, (syn. Prunus dulcis var. amara), that only produces bitter fruits

Prunus japonica, flowering almond, an ornamental shrub in family Rosaceae

Prunus andersonii, desert almond, a North American shrub in family Rosaceae

Prunus fasciculata, desert range almond or wild almond, North American shrub in family Rosaceae

Terminalia catappa, Indian almond or tropical almond, in family Combretaceae

Terminalia catappa
Terminalia catappa#Translingual

Brabejum stellatifolium or bitter almond, in family Proteaceae

almond:

(uncountable) The colour of the kernel of an almond without its shell and thin seed coat, a creamy off-white colour.


cocoa

A Dictionary of the English Language
Samuel Johnson
en:cocoa

en-noun

cocoa (countable and uncountable, plural cocoas)

From Spanish cacao, from Classical Nahuatl cacahuatl. The form cocoa by confusion with coco, popularized by Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language. Doublet of cacao.

An unsweetened brown powder made from roasted, ground cocoa beans, used in making chocolate, and in cooking.

Do you like cocoa?

Half past nine - high time for supper;
Cocoa, love? Of course, my dear.
Helen thinks it quite delicious,
John prefers it now to beer....
¶For they've stumbled on the secret
Of a love that never wanes,
Rapt beneath the tumbled bedclothes,
Cocoa coursing through their veins.

1979, Stanley J. Sharpless, A Food Lover's Companion, Harper & Row, Evan Jones (edit.)

(uncountable) A hot drink made with milk, cocoa powder, and sugar.

cocoa:

(countable) A light to medium brown colour.


cocoa

A Dictionary of the English Language
Samuel Johnson

Of a light to medium brown colour, like that of cocoa powder.


cocoa

By confusion with cocoa, popularized by Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language.

(now nonstandard) Alternative spelling of coco.


linen

linen (countable and uncountable, plural linens)

From Middle English lynnen, lynen, from Old English līnen (“linen", "made of flax”), from Proto-West Germanic *līnīn (“made of flax”), from Proto-Germanic *līną (“flax”), from Proto-Indo-European *līno- (“flax”), equivalent to line + -en. Cognate with Latin līnum (“flax”) and thus also Linum. More at line.

inh

She put the freshly cleaned linens into the linen closet.

But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me for protection. ¶[…]The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window at the old mare feeding in the meadow below by the brook,[…].

1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:

(countable) Domestic textiles, such as tablecloths, bedding, towels, underclothes, etc., that are made of linen or linen-like fabrics of cotton or other fibers; linens.

linen:

A light beige colour, like that of linen cloth undyed.


ginger

en-noun

ginger (countable and uncountable, plural gingers)

→ Greek: τζίντζερ (tzíntzer)

→ Japanese: ジンジャー (jinjā)

→ Maltese: ġinġer

→ Manx: jinshar

→ Welsh: sinsir

→ Zulu: újínja

Inherited from Middle English gingere, alteration of gingivere, from Old English gingifer, gingiber (influenced by Old French gingembre), from Medieval Latin gingiber, zingiber, from Latin zingiberi, from Late Ancient Greek ζιγγίβερις (zingíberis), from Sauraseni Prakrit 𑀲𑀺𑀁𑀕𑀺𑀯𑁂𑀭 (siṃgivera), ultimately from Dravidian, compare Old Tamil 𑀇𑀜𑁆𑀘𑀺𑀯𑁂𑀭𑁆 (iñcivēr) and Tamil இஞ்சிவேர் (iñcivēr) from இஞ்சி (iñci, “ginger”) + வேர் (vēr, “root”).

/ˈd͡ʒɪnd͡ʒɚ/

(colloquial, often derogatory, countable) A person with reddish hair; a redhead.


wheat

From Middle English whete, from Old English hwǣte, from Proto-West Germanic *hwaitī, from Proto-Germanic *hwaitijaz (compare West Frisian weet, Dutch weit, Low German Weten, German Weizen, Danish hvede, Swedish vete, Norwegian Nynorsk kveite, Icelandic hveiti), from *hwītaz (“white”). More at white.

Wheaten, of a light brown colour, like that of wheat.

cone wheat Triticum turgidum subsp. turgidum

English wheat Triticum turgidum subsp. turgidum

Polish wheat Triticum turgidum subsp. polonicum

rivet wheat Triticum turgidum subsp. turgidum


fawn

From Middle English fawne, fowne, foun, from Old French faon, foon, feon, from Vulgar Latin *fētōnem, from Latin fētus (“offspring, young”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁(y)- (“to suckle, nurse”). Displaced native Old English hindċealf (literally “deer calf”). Doublet of fetus.

ncog

fawn:

A pale brown colour tinted with yellow, like that of a fawn.


lion

→ Hawaiian: liona

→ Japanese: ライオン (raion)

→ Maia: laion

→ Tokelauan: leona

From Middle English lyoun, lion, leon, borrowed from Old French lion, from Latin leō, (accusative: leōnem), from Ancient Greek λέων (léōn), of unclear origin. Doublet of Leo, leu, lev, and Lyon. Displaced Old English lēo.

March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb

It was said of [Edward Plantaganet] that ‘he was a lion for pride and ferocity but a pard for inconstancy and changeableness, not keeping his word or promise but excusing himself with fair words’.

2003, Peter Armstrong, Angus McBride, Stirling Bridge & Falkirk 1297–98: William Wallace's Rebellion:

A person who shows attributes associated with the lion, such as strength, courage, or ferocity.

During this period, we were the lions of the neighbourhood; and, no doubt, strangers from the distant villages were taken to see the "Karhowrees" (white men), in the same way that countrymen, in a city, are gallanted to the Zoological Gardens.

1847 March 30, Herman Melville, Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas; […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC:

Such society was far more enjoyable than that of Edinburgh, for here he was not a lion, but a man.

1844, John Wilson, Essay on the Genius, and Character of Burns:

The men were delighted to go, and became the lions of the following season in Adelaide.

1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 84:

Rose Waterford was a cynic. She looked upon life as an opportunity for writing novels and the public as her raw material. Now and then she invited members of it to her house if they showed an appreciation of her talent and entertained with proper lavishness. She held their weakness for lions in good-humoured contempt, but played to them her part of the distinguished woman of letters with decorum.

1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “ch. 4”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:

Heated comments were exchanged, and, before anyone could say, "festival," the two lions of the folk power structure were rolling in the dirt.

1965 August, Mississippi Phil Ochs, “The Newport Fuzz Festival”, in The Realist, number 61, retrieved 2022-11-13, page 11:

So bring a basket for the lions / Of City of Industry

2014, Camper Van Beethoven (lyrics and music), “City of Industry”, in El Camino Real, performed by Camper Van Beethoven:

A famous person regarded with interest and curiosity.

lion:

A light brown color that resembles the fur of a lion.


lion

Of the light brown color that resembles the fur of a lion.


moccasin

John Smith (explorer)
Louisville Zoo
Musée de l'Armée
Néstor Kirchner
President of Argentina

From Powhatan makasin, mockasin, mawhcasuns (plural), from Proto-Algonquian *maxkeseni. The word is cognate with Massachusett mohkisson, mokussin, Mi'kmaq mksɨn, Munsee mahkusin, Ojibwe makizin. First appears c. 1612 in the writings of John Smith. It has been suggested that sense 4 (“North American snake”) may be derived from a different Native American word.

refn

From the collection of the Musée de l'Armée in Paris, France.

The formal moccasins belonged to the former President of Argentina Néstor Kirchner (1950–2010) and are from the collection of the Museo del Bicentenario in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

moccasin:

He came in a primitive, rickety buggy, drawn by an old, moccasin-colored horse, which, it is to be hoped, had seen better days.

1898 October, Leverett W. Spring, “The Career of a Kansas Politician”, in J[ohn] Franklin Jameson, editor, The American Historical Review, volume IV, number 1, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd., published 1899, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 80:

I prefer the Culprit brand in the moccasin color, the red shad color and the black with blue tail.

1993, W[alter] Horace Carter, Bud Andrews, Headstart Fishing Handbook, Tabor City, N.C.: Atlantic Pub. Co., →ISBN, page 134:

A light beige colour, like that of a moccasin.


oak

en-noun

oak (countable and uncountable, plural oaks)

Inherited from Middle English ook, oke, aik, ake, from Old English āc (also as Old English ǣċ), from Proto-West Germanic *aik, from Proto-Germanic *aiks, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyǵ- (“oak”).
Cognates
From Proto-Germanic: Scots aik, West Frisian iik, Dutch eik, German Eiche, German Low German Eek, Danish eg, Norwegian Bokmål eik, Norwegian Nynorsk eik, Swedish ek, Yiddish אייכנבוים (eykhnboym).
From Proto-Indo-European: Latin aesculus (“Durmast oak”), Lithuanian ąžuolas (“oak”), Albanian enjë (“juniper, yew”), Ancient Greek αἰγίλωψ (aigílōps, “Turkey oak”)).

cog

It was not far from the house; but the ground sank into a depression there, and the ridge of it behind shut out everything except just the roof of the tallest hayrick. As one sat on the sward behind the elm, with the back turned on the rick and nothing in front but the tall elms and the oaks in the other hedge, it was quite easy to fancy it the verge of the prairie with the backwoods close by.

Instead there were the white of aspens, streaks of branch and slender trunk glistening from the green of leaves, and the darker green of oaks, and through the middle of this forest, from wall to wall, ran a winding line of brilliant green which marked the course of cottonwoods and willows.

1912 January, Zane Grey, chapter 8, in Riders of the Purple Sage […], New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC:

(countable) A deciduous tree with distinctive deeply lobed leaves, acorns, and notably strong wood, typically of England and northeastern North America, included in genus Quercus.

Any tree of other genera and species of trees resembling typical oaks of genus Quercus in some ways.

Toxicodendron, poison oak, in family Anacardiaceae


oak

en-verb

oak (third-person singular simple present oaks, present participle oaking, simple past and past participle oaked)

oaks (present singular third-person)
oaking (participle present)
oaked (participle past)
oaked (past)

(wine, transitive) To expose to oak in order for the oak to impart its flavors.


straw

en-noun

straw (countable and uncountable, plural straws)

→ Japanese: ストロー

From Middle English straw, from Old English strēaw, from Proto-West Germanic *strau, from Proto-Germanic *strawą (“that which is strewn, straw”), from Proto-Indo-European *strew- (“to spread around, strew”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Sträi (“straw”), West Frisian strie (“straw”), Dutch stro (“straw”), German Low German Stroh (“straw”), German Stroh (“straw”), Norwegian and Swedish strå (“straw”), Icelandic strá (“straw”), Walloon strin, Albanian shtrohë (“kennel”).

der

straw:

(uncommon) A pale, yellowish beige colour, like that of a dried straw.

The Bromfield Street offices were housed in a dilapidated but heavily-insured building, owned by a straw for a wealthy downtown real estate developer, surrounded by expensive new commercial developments, and in a city renowned for arson-for-profit.

1984 August 4, Larry Goldsmith, “Cops Charged With Setting GCN Fire”, in Gay Community News, page 1:


straw

Of a pale, yellowish beige colour, like that of a dried straw.


bay

From Middle English baye, baie, from Old English beġ (“berry”), as in beġbēam (“berry-tree”), conflated with Old French baie, from Latin bāca (“berry”).

Laurus nobilis
Laurus nobilis#Translingual

Laurus nobilis, a tree or shrub of the family Lauraceae, having dark green leaves and berries.


bay

en-verb

bay (third-person singular simple present bays, present participle baying, simple past and past participle bayed)

bays (present singular third-person)
baying (participle present)
bayed (participle past)
bayed (past)

From Old French bay, combined with aphetized form of abay; verbal form of baier, abaier.

The hounds at nearer distance hoarsely bay'd.

1700, [John] Dryden, “Theodore and Honoria, from Boccace”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

For at the last shall the thunder, fleeing to escape from the doom of the gods, roar horribly among the Worlds; and Time, the hound of the gods, shall bay hungrily at his masters because he is lean with age.

1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC, page 92:

The scene was rocking, all were digging the sounds
Igor on chains, backed by his baying hounds
The coffin-bangers were about to arrive
With their vocal group, The Crypt-Kicker Five.

1962, “Monster Mash”, Bobby "Boris" Pickett and Lenny Capizzi (lyrics), performed by Bobby (Boris) Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers:


bay

en-noun

bay (countable and uncountable, plural bays)

From Middle English bay, bai, from Old French bai, from Latin badius (“reddish brown, chestnut”).

der

bay:

A brown colour/color of the coat of some horses.


sandy

en-adj

sandy (comparative sandier, superlative sandiest)

sandier (comparative)
sandiest (superlative)

From Middle English sandi, sondy, sandiȝ, from Old English sandiġ (“sandy”), equivalent to sand + -y. Cognate with Dutch zandig (“sandy”), German sandig (“sandy”), Swedish sandig (“sandy”).

Some plants grow best in sandy soil.

Mr. Cooke at once began a tirade against the residents of Asquith for permitting a sandy and generally disgraceful condition of the roads. So roundly did he vituperate the inn management in particular, and with such a loud flow of words, that I trembled lest he should be heard on the veranda.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

sandy:


bole

en-noun

bole (countable and uncountable, plural boles)

From Ancient Greek βῶλος (bôlos, “clod or lump of earth”): compare French bol. Doublet of bolus.

bor

bole:

The shade of reddish brown which resembles this clay.


umber

en-noun

umber (countable and uncountable, plural umbers)

From Middle French ombre (“umber”), from terre d'ombre (“dark ochre”), from Old French umbre (“shade, shadow”), from Latin umbra. Doublet of umbra.

umber:

I'll put myself in poor and mean attire,
And with a kind of umber smirch my face;
The like do you; so shall we pass along,
And never stir assailants.

c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], lines 518-21:

A brown clay, somewhat darker than ochre, which contains iron and manganese oxides.


dun

From Middle English dun, donn, dunne, from Old English dunn (“dun, dingy brown, bark-colored, brownish black”), from Proto-West Germanic *duʀn, from Proto-Germanic *duznaz, *dusnaz (“brown, yellow”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂- (“to smoke, raise dust”). Cognate with Old Saxon dun (“brown, dark”), Old High German tusin (“ash-gray, dull brown, pale yellow, dark”), Old Norse dunna (“female mallard; duck”).
Alternative etymology derives the Old English word from Brythonic (compare Middle Welsh dwnn (“dark (red)”)), from Proto-Celtic *dusnos (compare Old Irish donn and Scottish Gaelic donn (“brown”)), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰews- (compare Old Saxon dosan (“chestnut brown”)). More at dusk.

cog

dun:


teak

en-noun

teak (usually uncountable, plural teaks)

Derived from Portuguese teca, from Malayalam തേക്ക് (tēkkŭ) / Tamil தேக்கு (tēkku).

Tectona grandis
Tectona grandis#Translingual

(uncountable, countable) An extremely durable timber highly valued for shipbuilding and other purposes, yielded by Tectona grandis (and Tectona spp.).

(countable) A tree of the species in the genus Tectona.

teak:

(uncountable) A yellowish brown colour, like that of teakwood.


teak

Of a yellowish brown colour, like that of teak wood.


hepatic

From Middle English epatik, from Late Latin hepaticus, from Ancient Greek ἡπατικός (hēpatikós, “of the liver”), from ἧπαρ (hêpar, “liver”).

der

hepatic:

Polyhydrite, a silicate of oxide of iron from Breitenbrun, Saxony, is of a hepatic color, vitreous lustre and opaque

1842, Dr. Lewis Feuchtwanger, “Mineralogical Notices”, in The American journal of science and arts, page 386:

In fact bis weakness was for alcoholic stimulants. Hence his liver was carefully examined. It was not of the usual hepatic color ; in this case it presented a deep purple-black

1872, “Remarks on Longevity”, in The Medical and surgical reporter, page 104:

Among the most striking ot the internal modifications is the gradual change of the liver from the characteristic hepatic color to a bright green.

1893, The Wilder quarter-century book: a collection of original papers, page 438:

Of a deep brownish-red color like that of liver.


tamarind

en-noun

tamarind (countable and uncountable, plural tamarinds)

From Late Middle English thamarynde, from Old French tamarinde, from Medieval Latin tamarindus, from Arabic تَمْر هِنْدِيّ (tamr hindiyy, literally “Indian date”).

der

تَمْر هِنْدِيّ

tamarind:

A dark brown colour, like that of tamarind pulp (also called tamarind brown).


biscuit

en-noun

biscuit (countable and uncountable, plural biscuits)

Tok Pisin: bisket

→ Bengali: বিস্কুট (biskuṭ)

→ Burmese: ဘီစကွတ် (bhica.kwat)

→ Cebuano: biskuwít, biskwit

→ Fiji Hindi: biskut

→ Gujarati: બિસ્કિટ (biskiṭ)

→ Hausa: bìskît

desc

ביסקוויט//בִּיסְקְוִיט

→ Hebrew: ביסקוויט／בִּיסְקְוִיט (bískvit)

→ Hiligaynon: biskwit

desctree

→ Hindi: बिस्कुट (biskuṭ)
→ Jarawa: biskuʈ (“biscuit”)

→ Indonesian: beskit, biskit

→ Japanese: ビスケット (bisuketto)

→ Korean: 비스켓 (biseuket)

→ Malay: biskut

→ Marshallese: petkōj

→ Punjabi: ਬਿਸਕੁਟ (biskuṭ)

→⇒ Scottish Gaelic: briosgaid

→ Spanish: bísquet, bísquete

→ Swahili: biskuti

→ Sylheti: ꠛꠤꠍꠇꠥꠐ (bisókuṭ)

→ Tagalog: biskuwit

→ Thai: บิสกิต (bís-gìt)

→ Urdu: بسکٹ (biskiṭ)
→ Ushojo: بسکٹ (biskiṭ)

→ Yoruba: bisikíìtì

→ Zulu: bhisikidi

PIE word
 *dwóh₁
From earlier bisket, from Middle English bisquyte, from Old French bescuit (French biscuit); doublet of biscotto.

biscuit:


oatmeal

en-noun

oatmeal (usually uncountable, plural oatmeals)

From Middle English otemele, from ote (“oat”) + mele (“meal, coarse-ground grains”). Equivalent to oat + meal.

A breakfast cereal made from rolled oats, cooked in milk and/or water.

вівся́не бо́рошно n (vivsjáne bórošno, literally “oat flour”)

oatmeal:

A light greyish brown colour, like that of oatmeal.


oatmeal

Boldly patterned textiles in oatmeal tones with a woven design in a strongly contrasting colour can be used alike for upholstery and as a wall hanging […]

Of a light greyish brown colour, like that of oatmeal


brownish

en-adj

brownish (comparative more brownish, superlative most brownish)

more brownish (comparative)
most brownish (superlative)

The Giraffe and the Zebra and the Eland and the Koodoo and the Hartebeest lived there; and they were 'sclusively sandy-yellow-brownish all over […]

1902, Rudyard Kipling, “How the Leopard Got His Spots”, in Just So Stories:

Two pumps stood side by side in our kitchen. One was for well water and one was a cistern pump—water from the former was hard and clear, from the cistern it was brownish and soft.

1942, Emily Carr, “Waterworks”, in The Book of Small, Toronto, Ont.: Oxford University Press, →OCLC:

Watt wore, on his feet, a boot, brown in colour, and a shoe, happily of a brownish colour also.

1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, published 1959, →OCLC:

Of a colour which resembles brown; somewhat brown.

brunenc

of a colour which resembles brown; somewhat brown


tawny

tawny (comparative tawnier, superlative tawniest)

tawnier (comparative)
tawniest (superlative)

The adjective is derived from Middle English tauni, tawne (“having a brownish-orange colour”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman taune, tawné, and Old French tané, tanné, tanney (“of a tan colour”), an adjective use of the past participle of taner (“to turn hide into leather, tan”), from tan (“pulped oak bark used to tan leather, tanbark”), ultimately from Proto-Celtic *tannos (“green oak”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *(s)dʰnwos, *(s)dʰonu (“fir”).
The -aw- spelling (also -au- in Middle English) seems to have been due to the pronunciation of Old French tané.
The verb is derived from the adjective.
cognates
* Breton tann
* Medieval Latin tannāre (“to dye a tawny color; to tan”)
* Old Irish caerthann (“rowan”)

nb...

taunde, taunei, tauneʒ, tauny, tawny, (chiefly Northern England, Scotland) tanei, tani, tanne, tannee, tanny, tannye, tany, thanne

cog

And if any of your nation attempte once to ſtoppe me in my iorney now towards Calais, […] I in my defence ſhall colour and make red your tawny ground with the effuſion of chriſtian bloud: […]

1577, Raphaell Holinshed, “King Henrie the Fifth”, in The Laste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume II, London: […] for Iohn Hunne, →OCLC, page 1077, column 2:

The VVooſell cock, ſo blacke of hevve, / VVith Orange tavvny bill, / The Throſtle, vvith his note ſo true, / The VVren, vvith little quill.

c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame. […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, […], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

Come, vve muſt haue you turne Fiddler againe, ſlaue, 'get a Baſe Violin at your backe, and march in a Tavvnie Coate, vvith one ſleeue, to Gooſe-faire, and then you'll knovve vs; […]

1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster or The Arraignment: […], London: […] [R. Bradock] for M[atthew] L[ownes] […], published 1602, →OCLC, Act III, scene iv:

To the Queen he gave […] a ſmall Box full of large Needles; then he gave her ſome courſe brovvn Thread, and ſhovv'd her hovv to thred the Needle and ſovv any Thing together vvith the Thread; all vvhich ſhe admired exceedingly, and call'd her Tavvny Maids of Honour about her, that they might learn alſo.

1725, [Daniel Defoe], “Part I”, in A New Voyage Round the World, by a Course Never Sailed before. […], London: […] A[rthur] Bettesworth, […]; and W. Mears, […], →OCLC, page 155:

[T]he vvatch-dogs and aſſembled ſvvains / Have driv'n a tavvny lion from the ſtalls, […]

1791, Homer, “[The Iliad.] Book XI.”, in W[illiam] Cowper, transl., The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, Translated into Blank Verse, […], volume I, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, page 289, lines 661–662:

[T]he head waiter inquired with respectful solicitude whether that port, being a light and tawny wine, was suited to his taste, or whether he would wish to try a fruity port with greater body.

1842 December – 1844 July, Charles Dickens, “Will be Seen in the Long Run, if Not in the Short One, to Concern Mr. Pinch and Others, Nearly. […]”, in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1844, →OCLC, pages 150–151:

[P]erhaps they metamorphose themselves into a tawny squirrel that scampers away and mocks you from the topmost bough.

1859, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], “In the Wood”, in Adam Bede […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book first, page 240:

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

1865, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “The Shipwreck”, in [Sophia Thoreau; William Ellery Channing], editors, Cape Cod, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 14:

He did not come in the dawning; he did not come at noon; / And out o' the tawny sunset, before the rise o' the moon, / When the road was a gypsy's ribbon, looping the purple moor, / A red-coat troop came marching— / Marching—marching— / King George's men came marching, up to the old inn-door.

1906 August, Alfred Noyes, “The Highwayman”, in Poems, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, →OCLC, part 2, stanza I, pages 48–49:

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

1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, “Wayfarers All”, in The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 196:

I never thought I'd meet a girl like you / With auburn hair and tawny eyes

1982 March, Frank Maudsley, Paul Reynolds, Ali Score, Mike Score (lyrics and music), “I Ran (So Far Away)”, in A Flock of Seagulls, performed by A Flock of Seagulls:

Dio Cassius, writing more than one hundred years after the event, described Boudicca as 'very tall, in appearance most terrifying … the glance of her eye most fierce, her voice harsh … a great mass of the tawniest hair fell to her hips'.

2001, John Cannon, Anne Hargreaves, “Romano-British Rulers”, in The Kings & Queens of Britain, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 13:

ANTILLEAN NIGHTHAWK Chordeiles gundlachii […] Somewhat tawnier and smaller than Common Nighthawk, but readily distinguished from it only by call.

2019, Roger Tory Peterson, Michael DiGiorgio, Paul Lehman, Peter Pyle, Larry Rosche, “Owls and Nightjars”, in Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America (Peterson Field Guides), 2nd edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 230:

Of a light brown to brownish orange colour.

آدَم

of a light brown to brownish orange colour


tawny

en-verb

tawny (third-person singular simple present tawnies, present participle tawnying, simple past and past participle tawnied)

tawnies (present singular third-person)
tawnying (participle present)
tawnied (participle past)
tawnied (past)

So many friends, their friendſhips daily breake, / That fevve are faithfull, if that fevve be any: / The Sunne ſo ſoone, the painted face vvill tavvny.

1602, Nicholas Breton, The Mothers Blessing, London: […] T[homas] C[reede] for Iohn Smethick, […], →OCLC, signature [D4], recto:

He [Vulcan] ſmels all ſmoake, and vvith his naſty ſvveate / Tavvnies my skinne, out on him vgly knaue, / Mars is my loue, and he my ſvveets ſhall haue.

1613, Thomas Heywood, The Brazen Age, […], London: […] Nicholas Okes, […], →OCLC, Act II, signature I2, verso:

Alas 'tis faded, ſoyl'd vvith the ſmoke of Luſt; / So ſvvarthy as if that glorious face of thine / VVere tavvnyed underneath the torrid Line: […]

1632, Fra[ncis] Quarles, “On Gods Image”, in Divine Fancies: Digested into Epigrammes, Meditations, and Observations, London: […] Iohn Marriot, […], →OCLC, book III, page 148:

The General stares into the sandstorm churned up by all that movement. Like a curtain draped across the world, tawnying the October sky.

2017, Nathan Englander, “2014, Limbo”, in Dinner at the Centre of the Earth, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →ISBN:

(transitive) To cause (someone or something) to have a light brown to brownish orange colour; to tan, to tawn.

The countenance alone bespoke the years and the cares of John M‘Whirter. The deep wrinkled brow—the cheek plaited, and tawnied in the sun and the frosts of the north— […]

1825, chapter XI, in The Abduction; or, The Adventures of Major Sarney: A Story of the Times of Charles the Second. […], volume II, London: […] [William Clowes] for Charles Knight, […], →OCLC, page 249:

In his drowse it all turned gleaming and mixing in him, his whole life, like the river gleaming taut between the trees. And everything that had ever happened to him tawnied over by the voluptuous light of the last fall, and his mouth watered for it all.

1990, Meridel Le Sueur, “Gone Home”, in Elaine Hedges, editor, Ripening: Selected Work, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, →ISBN, page 215:

[C]olheita is actually a tawny Port from a single vintage. In other words, it has aged (and softened and tawnied) in wood for many years.

2019, Ed McCarthy, Mary Ewing-Mulligan, “Wine Roads Less Traveled: Fortified and Dessert Wines”, in Wine for Dummies (For Dummies), 7th edition, Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, part 5 (Wine’s Exotic Face), page 318:

(intransitive) To become a light brown to brownish orange colour; to tan, to tawn.


tawny

en-noun

tawny (countable and uncountable, plural tawnies or tawnys)

From Middle English tauni, tawne (“brownish-orange colour; cloth of this colour; sweet beverage of this colour”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman tawné, and Old French tané, tanné, tanney (“tan colour; cloth of this colour”), from tané (verb): see further at etymology 1.
Sense 2.1 (“Eurasian bullfinch”) is due to the brown colour of the female.

kellanruskea

something of a light brown or brownish orange colour

tawny:

Neere to Canuſia, the ſheepe be deepe yellovv or tavvnie; and about Tarentum, they are of a brovvne and duſkiſh colour.

1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book VIII.] Divers Kinds of Wooll and Clothes.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 1st tome, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 227:

Despise not my discolour'd look: / This tawny from the sun I took.

1641, George Sandys, “A Paraphrase upon the Song of Solomon. Canto I.”, in The Poetical Works of George Sandys. […], volume II, London: John Russell Smith, […], published 1872, →OCLC, page 340:

From the follovving Dye are Compoſed the beſt Tavvnies, Grey and Crimſon Goat Colours. […] The Silk muſt be put in vvhen the Suds are cold, for the colder the Suds, the blevver the Violet Colour, vvhich muſt alvvays be blevver than the Tavvnies.

1705, “Part I. Of Silk Dying.”, in [anonymous], transl., The Whole Art of Dying. […], London: […] William Pearson, and sold by J[ohn] Nutt, […], →OCLC, page 14:

And thus by varying the Colours you ſhall produce all ſorts of mixtures: So black and vvhite variouſly mixed make a vaſt Company of deep and light Greys, Bleus and Yellovvs, many Greens; Red and Yellovv Orange Tavvnies, […] the more the Red the deeper the Orange Tavvnies, and ſo forth; and thus muſt they in your VVork be ſhaded and heightened vvith Colours of their ovvn Affinity: […]

1720, Tho[mas] Page, Junior, “The Materials of Painting, Describing the Chief Colours to be Used; […]”, in The Art of Painting in Its Rudiment, Progress, and Perfection: […], Norwich, Norfolk: […] , […], →OCLC, pages 48–49:

'Gad, if Miss S. will have me, I'm her man. I ain't particular about a shade or so of tawny.

1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “In which Mr. Osborne Takes Down the Family Bible”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 200:

A light brown to brownish orange colour.

[T]he Herehaught [herald] muſt have a ſinguler reſpect to the face of him that ſhould haue the Armes, vvhere he ſhal vvel perceiue in vvhat ſeaſõ of the yere, his ovvn complexion vvill ſerue him to do beſt ſeruice in: […] If in Somer, either a Hound or Salamandra, or ſome part of them, of the colour Bruske, vvhich is betvveene Geules and tavvney.

1597, Gerard Leigh [i.e., Gerard Legh], The Accedence of Armorie, London: […] Henrie Ballard […], →OCLC, folio 116, verso:

Tavvny (ſaith Leigh [i.e., Gerard Legh]) is a Colour of vvorſhip, and of ſome Heralds it is called Bruske, and is moſt commonly borne of French Gentlemen, but very fevv doe beare it in England. In Blazon it is knovvne by the name of Tenne. It is (ſaith he) the ſureſt colour that is (of ſo bright a hevv being compounded) for it is made of tvvo bright Colours, vvhich are Red and Yellovv: […]

1632, John Guillim, “Sect[ion] I. Chap[ter] III.”, in A Display of Heraldrie: […], 2nd edition, London: […] Richard Badger for Ralph Mab, →OCLC, page 21:

Tenne, vvhich is the tavvny or Orange colour, is marked by diagonal lines dravvn from the Siniſter to the Dexter ſide of the Shield, traverſed by perpendicular lines from the Chief; […]

1765, Mark Anthony Porny [pseudonym; Antoine Pyron du Martre], “Of the Essential and Integral Parts of Arms. Article II. Of the Tinctures.”, in The Elements of Heraldry, […], London: […] J[ohn] Newbery, […], →OCLC, section I (Of Colours), page 17:

Some heraldic writers extend the number of tinctures to seven, by the addition of sanguine or murrey, dark blood or mulberry-colour, and tenné, tawny, or orange-colour; while others who admit them into the catalogue declare them, at the same time, to be stainant, or disgraceful; but, as I have stated in my notice of Abatements (p. 171), it is very improbable any one would bear arms so degraded; and the strongest proof that no such opinion with respect to these two colours existed in the days of chivalry is, that the livery colours of the house of York were murrey and blue, and that tawny was apparently much affected by the retainers of the nobility and Church dignitaries.

1859 April, J[ames] R[obinson] Planché, “Appendix”, in The Pursuivant of Arms; or, Heraldry Founded upon Facts. […], new edition, London: Robert Hardwicke, […], →OCLC, page 209:

(specifically, heraldry) Synonym of tenné (“a rarely-used tincture of orange or bright brown”)


antique brass

A brownish yellow colour, like that of brass, but darker.


antique brass

Of a brownish yellow colour, like that of brass, but darker.


bronze yellow

bronze yellow:

A yellowish brown colour, like that of bronze.


bronze yellow

en-adj

bronze yellow (comparative more bronze yellow, superlative most bronze yellow)

more bronze yellow (comparative)
most bronze yellow (superlative)

Of a yellowish brown colour, like that of bronze.


burlywood

burlywood:

A brown sandy colour, of RGB hexadecimal value #DEB887.


cupreous

cupreous (comparative more cupreous, superlative most cupreous)

more cupreous (comparative)
most cupreous (superlative)

From Latin cupreus, from cuprum (“copper”).

Of a reddish-brown color, like that of polished copper.


burnt sienna

We drink the last of the spring water in our canteens and, still thirsty, look to the river, that sombre flow the color of burnt sienna, raw umber, muy colorado, too thin to plow–as the Mormons say–and too thick to drink.

1968, Edward Abbey, “Down the River”, in Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness, McGraw-Hill; republished New York: Touchstone, 1968, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 160:

burnt sienna:

dark reddish brown colour, like that of roasted sienna.


burnt sienna

Of a dark reddish brown colour, like that of roasted sienna.


buckskin

en-noun

buckskin (countable and uncountable, plural buckskins)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-buckskin.wav

From Middle English bukskyn; equivalent to buck + skin.

I have alluded to his buckskins.

1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 3, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

buckskin:

A soft strong leather, usually yellowish or grayish in color, made of deerskin.

abaní

a soft strong leather, usually yellowish or grayish in color, made of deerskin

Cornwallis fought as lang's he dought, / An' did the buckskins claw, man.

1784, Robert Burns, Ballad on the American War:

A person clothed in buckskin, particularly an American soldier of the Revolutionary war.

A horse with a light yellowish-brown coat.


butterscotch

butterscotch (usually uncountable, plural butterscotches)

/ˈbʌtɚˌskɑt͡ʃ/

From butter + scotch, with the second element deriving (not from scotch whiskey or Scotland, but) from Middle English scocchen (“to score, nick, cut”), in reference to how the candy is boiled and hardened and then usually scored to make breaking it apart easier. The word is usually said to have originally been a trademark of Parkinson's, who is claimed to have invented it.

der

A hard candy made from butter, brown sugar, syrup and vanilla.

A sauce or syrup made of similar ingredients.

奶油糖漿

butterscotch:

A light brown colour, like that of butterscotch candy.


butterscotch

/ˈbʌtɚˌskɑt͡ʃ/

Of a light brown colour, like that of butterscotch candy.


topaz

en-noun

topaz (usually uncountable, plural topazes)

→ Irish: tópás

→ Welsh: topas

From Old French topace (compare French topaze), from Ancient Greek τόπαζος (tópazos).

A ruby-topaz hummingbird, Chrysolampis mosquitus, the male of which has bright ruby feathers on the head and topaz on the throat


tow-colored

Of a pale yellow colour, like that of flax.


saddle brown

saddle brown:

A medium brown colour, like that of a saddle.


saddle brown

Of a medium brown colour, like that of a saddle.


wheaten

en-adj

wheaten (comparative more wheaten, superlative most wheaten)

more wheaten (comparative)
most wheaten (superlative)

From Middle English wheten, from Old English hwǣten (“wheaten”); equivalent to wheat + -en.

Of a pale yellow-beige colour, like that of wheat.


wheaten

wheaten:

A pale yellow or beige colour, like that of wheat.


titian

Named after Titian (Italian Tiziano), the Italian painter who made frequent use of this colour.

lang

<i class="Latn mention" lang="en">Titian</i>

titian:

A bright auburn colour, tinted with gold.


titian

en-adj

titian (comparative more titian, superlative most titian)

more titian (comparative)
most titian (superlative)

Of a bright auburn colour, tinted with gold, especially in reference to hair.


sorrel

en-noun

sorrel (countable and uncountable, plural sorrels)

From Middle English sorel, from Old French sorel, surele (“sorrel”), from Old French sur (“sour”), of Germanic origin, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *sūraz (“sour”); equivalent to sour + -el (diminutive suffix). Compare Old English sūre (“sorrel”), Icelandic súra (“sorrel”), Dutch zuring (“dock (plant), sorrel”). More at sour.

Rumex acetosa
Rumex acetosa#Translingual

Any of various plants with acidic leaves of the genus Rumex, especially

Rumex acetosa (common sorrel, garden sorrel), sometimes used as a salad vegetable.

Members of genus Oxalis or family Oxalidaceae, woodsorrels.

Now, many people drink alcohol, but when I was a child I remember drinking sorrel, ginger beer and drinks made from fresh fruits such as soursop and passion-fruit. Sorrel was prepared over a long period, not as quickly as it is now.

2007, African and Caribbean Celebrations, →ISBN, page 56:

For instance, one day we were sitting on the porch, looking down at the lagoon and the yachts from all over the world. He was drinking ginger beer mixed with rum, and I was drinking sorrel. No rum. Out of nowhere, he proposed.

2009, C. C. Alick, Dancing with the Yumawalli: Inspired by True Events, page 62:

Joy and the parents did not go either; we spent a quiet day at home, eating roast chicken and stuffing with our own green-gungu rice and peas, and drinking sorrel.

2012, Claudette Beckford-Brady, Sweet Home, Jamaica, page 390:

Hibiscus sabdariffa
Hibiscus sabdariffa#Translingual

A drink, consumed especially in the Caribbean around Christmas, made from the flowers of Hibiscus sabdariffa: hibiscus tea.


sorrel

From Middle English *sorel, from Middle French *sorel, sorrel, surrel, from Middle French sor (“yellowish-brown, reddish-brown”), probably from Old Frankish *saur (“dried”), from Proto-Germanic *sauzaz (“dry”), from Proto-Indo-European *saus- (“dry, parched”); equivalent to sore (“reddish-brown”) + -el (diminutive suffix). Cognate with Middle Dutch soor (“dry”), Old High German sōrēn (“to become dry”), and Old English sēar (“withered, barren”). See also sere.

suffix

sorrel:


sorrel

A little harmless gossip ensued on various themes, such as where old Aunt Sally got her new red head-kerchief, and how "Missis was a going to give Lizzy that spotted muslin gown, when she 'd got her new berage made up;" and how Mas'r Shelby was thinking of buying a new sorrel colt, that was going to prove an addition to the glories of the place.

1851 June – 1852 April, Harriet Beecher Stowe, chapter 4, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly, volume I, Boston, Mass.: John P[unchard] Jewett & Company; Cleveland, Oh.: Jewett, Proctor & Worthington, published 20 March 1852, →OCLC, page 50:

Of a brown colour, with a tint of red. (especially: a sorrel horse)


Vandyke brown

en-noun

Vandyke brown (countable and uncountable, plural Vandyke browns)

This colour was named for Sir Anthony Van Dyck, a Flemish painter.

Vandyke brown:

A medium brown colour, originally a pigment made from peat or soil.


ecru

ecru (countable and uncountable, plural ecrus)

ecru:

We have descended Tian Shan and entered the Taklamakan Desert, a barren landscape painted in ecru—no shrubs, no grass, only waves upon waves of naked ridges the color of buff, the highest few spotted with white specks of snow.

2009, Y.J. Zhu, “Taklamakan Desert Moon Ride”, in Lucy McCauley, editor, The Best Women's Travel Writing 2009: True Stories from Around the World (Travelers' Tales), →ISBN, →ISSN, →OCLC, →OL, page 154:


ecru

Miriam fell in love with a tulle-and-lace gown, but Judy returned to the first one they'd looked at, an ecru satin bridal gown...

2005, Binnie Kirshenbaum, An Almost Perfect Moment:


mocha

mocha (countable and uncountable, plural mochas)

From Mocha, Yemen, a port on the Red Sea, from Arabic اَلْمُخَا (al-muḵā), for its role as a major marketplace for coffee during Ottoman rule.
The beans often had a chocolaty flavor, hence by extension came to refer to any coffee with a chocolate flavor, or any mixture of coffee and chocolate flavors, notably coffee with chocolate syrup added.

mocha:

A dark brown colour, like that of mocha coffee.

Any of a number of species of moths in the geometrid subfamily Sterrhinae, many European species having dark brown coloration.

(historical) An Abyssinian weight, equivalent to a Troy grain.


mocha

Of a dark brown colour, like that of mocha coffee.


abram

en-adj

abram (comparative more abram, superlative most abram)

more abram (comparative)
most abram (superlative)

The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles

Oxford University Press
w:Oxford University Press


manila

a manila envelope

Made of manila paper or material like it.

manila:

Yellow-brown; colored like manila paper.


manila

en-noun

manila (usually uncountable, plural manilas)

Fiber made from abaca (Manila hemp), used to make ropes and manila paper.

A kind of cheroot manufactured in Manila.


champagne

champagne (countable and uncountable, plural champagnes)

Borrowed from French champagne (“sparkling wine from the Champagne region”), from Champagne (“region and former province of France”), from Late Latin campānia (in full Campānia Rēmēnsis), from campāneus (“of or pertaining to the fields”), from Latin campus (“level ground; field, plain”), from Proto-Indo-European *kh₂emp- (“to bend, curve”). The English word is a doublet of campagna (“flat stretch of countryside”) (dated), campaign, and campania.

cava

Spanish sparkling white wine made with the méthode champenoise

crémant

French sparkling wine that isn't from the Champagne region

prosecco

Italian sparkling white wine made by dual fermentation method in vats

spumante

Italian sparkling wine, sometimes made with the méthode champenoise

(countable, uncountable, informal) Any sparkling white wine.

shampanjë

sparkling white wine produced in Champagne


mousy

en-adj

mousy (comparative mousier, superlative mousiest)

mousier (comparative)
mousiest (superlative)

From mouse + -y (forms adjectives from nouns).


root beer

en-noun

root beer (countable and uncountable, plural root beers)

/ˈɹuːt ˌbɪə/

The term is attested since before the lifetime of Charles Elmer Hires, but he is widely credited with popularizing it much further than it had previously been; his proprietary beverage was inspired by an earlier root tea, and he planned to sell it under that name, but he changed its name to broaden the sales appeal. For more, see Wikipedia at root beer § History.

In 1919, when Roy Allen and Frank Wright started selling their new root beer beverage to a thirsty America, national Prohibition was taking its grip on the country. Their timing couldn't have been better. No longer able to legally drink real beer, thirsty patriots had to settle for this sweet, foamy conoction derived from roots, herbs, and berries.

2002, Todd Wilbur, Top Secret Recipes, Penguin, →ISBN:

A beverage, most often a carbonated soft drink made from a combination of vanilla, cherry tree bark, licorice root, sarsaparilla root, sassafras root bark, nutmeg, anise, and molasses, among other things.


mahogany

mahogany (countable and uncountable, plural mahoganies)

→ German: Mahagoni

A word of unknown origin concocted in either English or Middle Dutch from one or more exotic phytonyms and common European words.

bastard mahogany

Eucalyptus botryoides or Matayba apetala

Brazilian mahogany

Cariniana legalis; Plathymenia foliolosa, Plathymenia reticulata

A very neat old woman, still in her good outdoor coat and best beehive hat, was sitting at a polished mahogany table on whose surface there were several scored scratches so deep that a triangular piece of the veneer had come cleanly away[…].

1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

(uncountable) The valuable wood of any of various tropical American evergreen trees, of the genus Swietenia, mostly used to make furniture.

William Murdoch […] produced a bottle of port; but I chose mahogany (two parts gin and one part treacle, which Lord Eliot made us at Sir Joshua Reynolds's as a Cornish liquor, but it seems they make it also with brandy, and often add porter to it).

1792, James Boswell, in Danziger & Brady (eds.), Boswell: The Great Biographer (Journals 1789–1795), Yale 1989, p. 178

(regional) A Cornish drink made from gin and treacle.

Better she, my dear, than a black Mrs. Sedley, and a dozen of mahogany grandchildren.

1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 6, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

mahogany:

A reddish-brown color, like that of mahogany wood.


mahogany

en-adj

mahogany (comparative more mahogany, superlative most mahogany)

more mahogany (comparative)
most mahogany (superlative)

Having the colour of mahogany; dark reddish-brown.


terracotta

en-noun

terracotta (usually uncountable, plural terracottas)

/ˌtɛɹ.əˈkɒt.ə/

/ˌtɛɹ.əˈkɑt.ə/

Borrowed from Italian terra (“earth”) + cotta (“baked”).

terracotta:

A reddish brown colour, like that of terra cotta.


caramel

en-verb

caramel (third-person singular simple present caramels, present participle caramelling or carameling, simple past and past participle caramelled or carameled)

caramels (present singular third-person)
caramelling (participle present)
carameling (participle present)
caramelled (participle past)
caramelled (past)
carameled (participle past)
carameled (past)

General American, Mary–marry–merry merger

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-caramel.wav

Borrowed from French caramel, from Spanish caramelo, from Portuguese caramelo, dissimilated from Late Latin calamellus, diminutive of calamus (“reed”) (and a doublet of chalumeau and shawm). Alternatively from Medieval Latin cannamellis, which is a compound of canna + mellis.

To turn out, place the dish over the mould, and invert both together, when, if the caramelling has been complete, the pudding should slip out without any difficulty at all.

1900, M. M. Mallock, The Economics of Modern Cookery: Or, A Younger Son's Cookery Book:

(transitive, cooking, dated) To caramelize.


café au lait

en-noun

café au lait (countable and uncountable, plural café au laits or cafés au lait)

café au laits (plural)
cafés au lait (plural)

/ˌkæfeɪ əʊ ˈleɪ/

/kæˌfeɪ əʊ ˈleɪ/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-café au lait.wav

Borrowed from French café au lait (literally “coffee with milk”).

bor

café au lait:


fallow

en-adj

fallow (comparative more fallow, superlative most fallow)

more fallow (comparative)
most fallow (superlative)

[Alt: A photograph of a light brown deer.]
From Middle English falwe, from Old English fealu, from Proto-Germanic *falwaz (compare West Frisian feal, Dutch vaal, German falb, fahl), from Proto-Indo-European *polwos (compare Lithuanian pal̃vas (“sallow, wan”), Russian поло́вый (polóvyj, “wan, light yellow”), Serbo-Croatian plâv (“blond, blue”), Ancient Greek πολιός (poliós, “grey”)), from Proto-Indo-European *pelH- (“pale, gray”).

der

a fallow deer or greyhound

fallow:

How does your fallow greyhound, sir?

a. 1597, William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor, act 1, scene 1:

Of a pale red or yellow, light brown; dun.


bistre

en-noun

bistre (countable and uncountable, plural bistres)

A brown pigment made from soot, especially from beech wood.


feuillemorte

From French feuille-morte, feuille morte (“a dead leaf”).

feuillemorte:

Of the color of dead or dying leaves: dull yellowish or orangish brown.


broon

broon (countable and uncountable, plural broons)

Conserved from Middle English broun, from Old English brūn as opposed to the Standard English pronunciation.


broon

en-adj

broon (comparative more broon, superlative most broon)

more broon (comparative)
most broon (superlative)

(Geordie, Scotland) Of the colour brown.


burnt orange

burnt orange:


burnt orange

burnt orange (comparative more burnt orange, superlative most burnt orange)

more burnt orange (comparative)
most burnt orange (superlative)

As for her beauty look, the Jennifer’s Body star had dyed her long tresses a burnt-orange shade, and styled them slightly curled at the ends and down across her shoulders. She also repped a bubblegum-pink manicure with an abstract black design.

2023 May 19, Chelsey Sanchez, “Megan Fox Makes Her Red-Carpet Comeback in a Body-Sculpting Sheer Gown”, in Harper's Bazaar:


coppery

coppery (comparative more coppery, superlative most coppery)

more coppery (comparative)
most coppery (superlative)

coppery:

That night I dreamed I had a very disagreeable taste in my mouth, which caused me to spit all the time. I awoke and found my mouth full of saliva, with a coppery taste, and sure enough, I was obliged to spit.

2002, E. P. Anshutz, New, Old and Forgotten Remedies, page 380:

Venetian women who wanted coppery hair colors applied bleaching mixtures, such as one that contained alum, sulfur, soda, and rhubarb. Then they sat in the sun, where heat produced a chemical reaction that developed the color.

2006, Victoria Sherrow, Encyclopedia of Hair: A Cultural History, page 155:

Resembling the metal copper, especially in color.


filemot

An anglicized form of feuillemorte / French feuille-morte.

filemot:

Synonym of feuillemorte: the color of a dead or faded leaf: dull brown or yellowish brown.


wenge

wenge:

A reddish shade of brown associated with this wood.


bronzy

bronzy (comparative bronzier, superlative bronziest)

bronzier (comparative)
bronziest (superlative)

Her bronzy tan spoke of hours spent in the sun.

Her skin had a bronzy polish under the pale dusting powder.

1963, Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar, Faber and Faber:


piceous

piceous (comparative more piceous, superlative most piceous)

more piceous (comparative)
most piceous (superlative)

From Latin piceus (“like pitch; pitch-black”) + -ous (suffix forming adjectives denoting possession or presence of a quality). Piceus is derived from pix (“pitch, tar”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peyH- (“fat; milk”)) + -eus (suffix forming adjectives indicating the sources of attributes). The English word is cognate with Italian piceo (“like pitch; of a dark brown colour”), Spanish piceo (“like pitch; of a dark brown colour”).

cog

I do not therefore require of you to believe, that the ancient rocks and compact bodies were diſſolved, but that many new ones were formed by the deluge, which had incloſed the ſpoils of the ſea within them. [...] What other rational account will you give of that ſhell of a nautilus, which was found buried in a ſtratum of a piceous ſubstance below the bed of the river Arbis, where Artaxerxes commanded a bridge to be built over it?

1741, Philip Yorke, 2nd Earl of Hardwicke et al., “Letter XCIX. Otanes, Chief Architect and Superintendent of the Royal Places, to Cleander.”, in Athenian Letters: or, The Epistolary Correspondence of an Agent of the King of Persia, Residing at Athens during the Peloponnesian War. […], London: James Bettenham, →OCLC; Athenian Letters: … In Two Volumes, new edition, volume I, London: Printed for T[homas] Cadell Jun. and W[illiam] Davies […], 1798, →OCLC, page 425:

(obsolete, rare) Of or pertaining to pitch (“a sticky, dark brown substance obtained from distilling turpentine or wood tar, or crude oil or tar”); having a quality like pitch; pitchlike, pitchy.

piceo

of or pertaining to pitch; having a quality like pitch

piceous:

Piciroſtris. Oblong, black: ſilvery-ſilky: ſnout half way and legs piceous.

1806, Charles Linné [i.e., Carl Linnaeus], William Turton, A General System of Nature, through the Three Grand Kingdoms of Animals, Vegetables, and Minerals, […] In Seven Volumes, volume II (Animal Kingdom), part I (Insects), London: Printed [by Dewick & Clarke] for Lackington, Allen, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 215:

The colour of the upper part is a mixture of yellowish-white and piceous disposed in dots, exactly resembling mosaic work, [...]

1828 June 17, Thomas Bell, “VII. Description of a New Species of Agama, Brought from the Columbia River by Mr. [David] Douglass.”, in The Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, volume XVI, London: Printed by Richard Taylor, […]; and by Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, […]; and William Wood, […], published 1833, →OCLC, pages 105–106:

Abdomen with shining cinereous tomentum, and with five lines of piceous spots; [...] Tibiæ piceous towards the tips; tarsi piceous.

1868 February 6, Andrew Murray, “On an Undescribed Light-giving Coleopterous Larva (Provisionally Named Astraptor illuminator)”, in The Journal of the Linnean Society. Zoology, volume X, London: Sold at the [Linnean] Society [of London]’s apartments, […]; and by Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, and Williams and Norgate, published 1870, →OCLC, paragraph 16, page 90:

Front and middle legs yellow, coxae black behind, femora piceous posteriorly; [...]

1940 September, R. A. Cushman, A Review of the Parasitic Wasps of the Ichneumonid Genus Exenterus Hartig (United States Department of Agriculture Miscellaneous Publication; no. 354), Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 12:

Agabus elongatus [...] Legs rufous; metafemur piceous.

1995, Anders N. Nilsson, Mogens Holmen, “Subfamily Colymbetinae”, in N. P. Kristensen, editor, The Aquatic Adephagia (Coleoptera) of Fennoscandia and Denmark. II. Dytiscidae (Fauna Entomologica Scandinavica), volume 32, Leiden, New York, N.Y.: E[vert] J[an] Leiden, →ISBN, →ISSN, paragraph 95, page 110:

From the year of its establishment, darkness seemed to have found a home in Beet College. Dark pink for the brick buildings, dark green for the doorjambs and the benches, dark iron for the hinges, dark stone for Nathaniel's Tomb; darkness in the piceous roots of trees that broke through the earth like bones through skin.

2008, Roger Rosenblatt, chapter 1, in Beet: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Ecco Press, →ISBN:

Gyrophaenia uteana Casey [...] [H]ead piceous, pronotum dark rufo-testaceous to piceous; elytra reddish-brown with sutural region and posterior angles piceous, abdomen yellowish- or reddish-brown, apical portion often darker, piceous; [...]

2018, Jan Klimaszewski et al., “Tribe Homalotini Heer, 1839”, in Aleocharine Rove Beetles of Eastern Canada (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Aleocharinae): A Glimpse of Megadiversity, Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature, →DOI, →ISBN, paragraph 162, page 378:

(chiefly entomology) Resembling pitch in colour; a very dark brown.


Mars brown

Presumably from the colour of the planet Mars.


olivaster

en-adj

olivaster (comparative more olivaster, superlative most olivaster)

more olivaster (comparative)
most olivaster (superlative)

From French olivastre (attested by 1575; compare modern French olivâtre). For more, see olive, -aster.

Of colour, they are rather black than olivaster and that their arms and legs are chained with manilios and armlets of silver, brass, ivory and the like

1634, T[homas] H[erbert], A Relation of Some Yeares Trauaile, Begunne Anno 1626. into Afrique and the Greater Asia, […], London: […] William Stansby, and Jacob Bloome, →OCLC:

(archaic, uncommon) Of the color of the olive; tawny.


dishwater blond

dishwater blond (comparative more dishwater blond, superlative most dishwater blond)

more dishwater blond (comparative)
most dishwater blond (superlative)

She had a pert, dishwater blond hairdo, kind of like a Doris Day cut.

2006, Pierce Scranton, Death on the Learning Curve, Elite Books, published 2006, →ISBN, page 129:

Of a dark blond color bordering on light brown.


dishwater blond

en-noun

dishwater blond (plural dishwater blonds)

dishwater blond:

"Dishwater blond is just as attractive as it sounds. Get highlights."

2006, Christina Dodd, Trouble in High Heels, Signet, published 2006, →ISBN, page 21:

A dark shade of blond, bordering on light brown.

Russ tipped the magazine slightly to reduce the glare from the lamp. The dishwater blond in the picture smiled at him, Russ thought, in just the right way.

2003, David M. Pierce, Elf Child, The Hatworth Press, published 2003, →ISBN, page 1:


philomot

One of them was blue, another yellow, and another philomot

1712 January 14 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “THURSDAY, January 3, 1711–1712”, in The Spectator, number 265; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume III, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:


spadiceous

en-adj

spadiceous (comparative more spadiceous, superlative most spadiceous)

more spadiceous (comparative)
most spadiceous (superlative)

From Latin spadix, spadicis (“a date-brown or nut-brown color”). See spadix.

Of those five [horns] which Scaliger beheld, though one spadiceous, or of a light red, and two inclining to red, yet was there not any of this complexion among them.

1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC:

Of a bright clear brown or chestnut colour.


gold ochre

en-noun

gold ochre (countable and uncountable, plural gold ochres)

/ɡəʊld ˈəʊkə(ɹ)/

gold ochre:

A dark yellowish color, a yellowish shade of ochre or olive.


claybank

I took Señorita Anabela for a walk in the lemon grove while Fergus, disfiguring himself with an ugly frown, was waltzing with the claybank girl.

1909 April, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “‘Next to Reading Matter’”, in Roads of Destiny, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC, page 82:


castaneous

en-adj

castaneous (comparative more castaneous, superlative most castaneous)

more castaneous (comparative)
most castaneous (superlative)

From the Latin castanea (“a chestnut, a chestnut tree”) + -ous (“full, full of”).

uder

Elytra piceous, gradually shaded into a castaneous margin, irregularly and minutely punctured, covered with ochraceous pubescence.

Having the colour of a chestnut; chestnut-coloured.


mummy brown

en-noun

mummy brown (usually uncountable, plural mummy browns)

mummy brown:

I then placed it [a wood frog (Lithobates sylvaticus)] in an open window on a whitish bottom, and the next day it was light brown. At 2 p.m., August 24th, I put it on a jet-black shelf, with black surroundings. Forty-five minutes later it was very dark, nearly mummy brown[…], but darker.

1893 August, Clarence M. Weed, “The Color Changes of Frogs”, in The Popular Science Monthly, volume XLIII, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton and Company, […], →OCLC, page 492:

Mummy Browns, from the crushings of Egyptian corpses, for the mortally ill and melancholy.

2001, M[ichelle] R. Lovric, “The Language of Colour”, in Carnevale, London: Virago, →ISBN; republished London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015, →ISBN, part 1:

Mummy brown was a common shade in artists’ colors until 1925, but it cannot be bought from any paint shop today. In 1964 Time magazine reported [“Techniques: The Passing of Mummy Brown”, Time, 2 October 1964] that London colormaker C. Roberson, which for a while had been the only distributor, had run out a few years before. “We might have a few odd limbs lying around somewhere,” managing director Geoffrey Roberson-Park told Time, “but not enough to make any more paint.”

2014, Victoria Finlay, “Mummy Brown: Funeral for Pharaohs”, in The Brilliant History of Color in Art, Los Angeles, Calif.: J. Paul Getty Museum, →ISBN, part 2 (Rocks, Minerals, Twigs, and Bugs), page 82, column 2:

The colour of this pigment, a variable brown intermediate between raw umber and burnt umber.


harvest gold

harvest gold (countable and uncountable, plural harvest golds)

harvest gold:


desert sand

desert sand:

A very light and very weakly saturated reddish yellow (orange or brown) colour that resembles the color of sand in a desert


œil-de-perdrix

Borrowed from French œil-de-perdrix (literally “eye of a partridge”).

bor

Having a brownish-red colour; used especially of light-coloured red wine.


nut-brown

en-adj

nut-brown (comparative more nut-brown, superlative most nut-brown)

more nut-brown (comparative)
most nut-brown (superlative)

From Middle English nute-brun, equivalent to nut + brown.

nut-brown:

I remember him as if it were yesterday, as he came plodding to the inn door, his sea-chest following behind him in a hand-barrow; a tall, strong, heavy, nut-brown man; his tarry pigtail falling over the shoulders of his soiled blue coat; his hands ragged and scarred, with black, broken nails; and the sabre cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white.

Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, (1883), Chapter 1


bronde

en-noun

bronde (countable and uncountable, plural brondes)

Blend of brunette + blonde or brown + blonde, popularised from circa 2010.

I'm a bronde.

(countable) A person having this hair colour.


badious

From Latin badius (“reddish brown, chestnut colored”), with the suffix adapted to -ous.

uder

Head castaneous; thorax latericious; abdomen badious; legs ochraceous.

1898, Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, Volume 26, Linnean Society of London:

Abdomen subovate and short; basal segment apically badious with postpetiole punctate, […]

1919, Zoological Society of London, Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London:

Its branching type and vaguely badious colour suggest a close relationship with B. spiralifera, which shares the same habitat.

1977, Societas, Opera Botanica, Issues 41-45:

badious:

badious:


dust-colored

en-adj

dust-colored (comparative more dust-colored, superlative most dust-colored)

more dust-colored (comparative)
most dust-colored (superlative)

In the weak eyes of Venus, and in every reddish dust-colored hair in his shock of hair, there was a marked distrust of Wegg and an alertness to fly at him on perceiving the smallest occasion.

1865, Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend:


Pullman brown

Named after Pullman, a rail company which used the colour on many of its cars.

Pullman brown:

UPS has used the color for its trucks since 1916, when it was called Pullman brown. The reason the company chose brown is "that it was the epitome of luxury at the time," a former UPS executive told The New York Times in 1998.

2012 September 29, Aleksi Tzatzev, “10 Colors That Might Get You Sued”, in Business Insider:

Home insulation company Owens Corning launched the "Think Pink" campaign to protect its unique pink hue, setting a precedent for Cadbury's deep purple chocolate wrappers, UPS's Pullman brown logos, Tiffany & Co.'s robin egg blue jewelry packaging and Christian Louboutin's red shoe soles.

2017 November 6, Marissa Miller, “How colors change the way we think, feel and consume”, in CNN:

A shade of brown originally used on Pullman cars and later by UPS.


shit-brown

en-noun

shit-brown (countable and uncountable, plural shit-browns)

But being the right shade of khaki or shit-brown is not enough.

1980, Bill Oddie, Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book, page 60:

shit-brown:

(vulgar, informal) A dark brown colour, as of excrement.


sepian

en-adjective

sepian (comparative more sepian, superlative most sepian)

more sepian (comparative)
most sepian (superlative)

He who dived in the swirling Maelstrom saw none to compare with them in horror: tentacular convolutions, tumid bulges, glaring orbs of sepian deformity, would have looked to him innocence beside such incarnations of hatefulness...

(archaic) Of the sepia, i.e. the cuttlefish.


dirty blonde

en-noun

dirty blonde (countable and uncountable, plural dirty blondes)

A dark shade of blonde, bordering on light brown.


mousy brown

en-adj

mousy brown (comparative more mousy brown, superlative most mousy brown)

more mousy brown (comparative)
most mousy brown (superlative)

mousy brown:

(of hair) Of a light brunette color with cool, greyish tones.


kobicha

For quotations using this term, see Citations:kobicha.

A dark, orangish or grayish brown color historically used in Japan.