Brown

Brown

Brown is a color term, denoting a range of composite colors produced by a mixture of orange, red, rose, or yellow with black or gray. The term is from Old English brún, in origin for any dusky or dark shade of color. The first recorded use of brown as a color name in English was in 1000. The Common Germanic adjective *brûnoz, *brûnâ meant both dark colors and a glistening or shining quality, whence burnish. The current meaning developed in Middle English from the 14th century.

Read more about Brown.

Famous quotes containing the word brown:

    “I am as brown as brown can be,
    And my eyes as black as sloe;
    I am as brisk as brisk can be,
    And wild as forest doe.
    —Unknown. The Brown Girl (l. 1–4)

    Piles of scrapbooks, the cuttings turned by time to the colour of the freckles on an old lady’s hand. Her hand. My hand, as it is now. When you touch the old newsprint, it turns into brown dust, like the dust of bones.
    Angela Carter (1940–1992)

    “Me did he send a love-letter,
    He sent it from the town,
    Saying no more he loved me,
    For that I was so brown.
    —Unknown. The Brown Girl (l. 9–12)