Brun
/bruːn/noun
An obsolete or dialectal English form meaning brown or dark-colored.
Did you know?Brun belongs to an ancient Germanic color-word family that survives in English through brown and in French-derived words such as brunette and burnish.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*bher-
“To shine, gleam, or appear brown; the reconstructed root behind several color and surface words.”
Proto-Germanic
Proto-Germanic
*brūnaz
“Brown or dark-colored.”
Old English
Old English
brūn
“Brown, dark, or dusky.”
Middle English
Middle English
brun
“Brown; a form found alongside developing variants such as broun.”
14th–15th Century
English
brown
“The form that became standard in English, replacing brun in ordinary usage.”
Modern English
English
brun
“An obsolete, dialectal, or specialized form meaning brown.”