Old English brun "dark, dusky," developing a definite color sense only 13c., from Proto-Germanic *brunaz (cf. Old Norse brunn, Danish brun, Old Frisian and Old High German brun, Dutch bruin, German braun), from PIE *bher- (3) "shining, brown" (cf. Lithuanian beras "brown"), related to *bheros "dark animal" (cf. beaver, bear (n.), and Greek phrynos "toad," literally "the brown animal").
The Old English word also had a sense of "brightness, shining," preserved only in burnish. The Germanic word was adopted into Romanic (e.g. Middle Latin brunus, Italian and Spanish bruno, French brun). Brown Bess, slang name for old British Army flintlock musket, first recorded 1785.
c.1300, "to become brown," from brown (adj.). From 1560s as "to make brown." Related: Browned; browning.
"brown color," c.1600, from brown (adj.).
Brown (broun), Michael. Born 1941.
American geneticist. He shared a 1985 Nobel Prize for discoveries related to cholesterol metabolism.
Opposed to environmental preservation and restoration •The opposite of green: The chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers is judged brown, rather than green, on the issue of timetables for climate control (1990s+)
verbalso brown-hole To do anal intercourse; bugger, bunghole (1930s+)
any of a group of delicate butterflies in the family Nymphalidae (order Lepidoptera) that are abundant during summer months in the woods and grasslands of the United States and Europe. The adults are dull brown or grey, while the larvae possess small, forked tail-like appendages on their abdomens. Adult butterflies have brown wings with a span of 5 to 6 cm (2 to 2.4 inches) and conspicuous circular markings on them. These false "eyes" on the wings may serve to frighten or distract predatory birds.