tawny

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English

Etymology

From Middle English tawne, from Anglo-Norman tawné, from Old French tané, past participle of taner (“to tan”), from tan (“tanbark, tawny color”), from Gaulish tanno (“holm oak”), from Proto-Celtic *tanno- (“green oak”), of uncertain further origin.[1] Compare Breton tann, Old Irish caerthann (“rowan”).

Pronunciation

Adjective

tawny (comparative tawnier, superlative tawniest)

  1. Of a light brown to brownish orange color.
    • 1865, Henry David Thoreau, Cape Cod, Chapter I. "The Shipwreck", page 14:
      There were the tawny rocks, like lions couchant, defying the ocean, whose waves incessantly dashed against and scoured them with vast quantities of gravel.
    • 1906, Alfred Noyes, The Highwayman:
      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.
    • 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.
  2. A sweet, fortified wine which is blended and matured in wood.

Synonyms

Translations

Noun

tawny

  1. A light brown to brownish orange colour.

Derived terms

Translations

References

  1. ^ Matasović, Ranko (2009) “*tanno-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 369

Anagrams

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