tawny

English

Etymology

From Middle English, from Anglo-Norman tauné, from Old French tané, past participle of taner (“to tan”), from tan 'tanbark, tawny color', from Gaulish tanno 'holm oak' (compare Breton tann, Old Irish caerthann 'rowan'), from Indo-European *dhenh-; akin to German Tann 'woods', Tanne 'fir', Hittite tanau 'fir', Avestan thanwarə (g. thanwanō) 'bow', Sanskrit dhánus (g. dhánvanus) 'bow', Latin femur (g. feminis) 'thigh', possibly Greek thámnos 'thicket'.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈtɔni/

• Rhymes: -ɔːni

Adjective

tawny (comparative tawnier, superlative tawniest)

1. Of a light brown to brownish orange colour
   • 1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

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

Translations

Of a light brown to brownish orange colour

• Danish: gulbrun (da), gyldenbrun (da)
• Finnish: kellanruskea (fi)

• Hungarian: világosbarna (hu)
• Russian: рыжевато-коричневый (ru) (ryževáto-koríčnevyj)

Noun

tawny

1. A light brown to brownish orange colour

Translations

A light brown to brownish orange colour

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 黃褐色 (cmn), 黄褐色 (cmn) (huánghèsè)

• Finnish: kellanruskea (fi)
• Hungarian: világosbarna (hu)

Derived terms

• tawny owl
• tawny port