Tawny

English

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.

Noun

tawny

1. A light brown to brownish orange colour

Thesaurus

beige, brown, brownish, brownish-yellow, brunet, chocolate, cinnamon, cocoa, cocoa-brown, coffee, coffee-brown, drab, dun, dun-brown, dun-drab, ecru, fawn, fawn-colored, fuscous, grege, hazel, khaki, lurid, nut-brown, olive-brown, olive-drab, seal, seal-brown, sepia, snuff-colored, sorrel, tan, taupe, toast, toast-brown, umber, umber-colored, walnut, walnut-brown, yellowish-brown

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

Translations

Adjective

Of a light brown to brownish orange colour

Danish: gulbrun (da), gyldenbrun (da)

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

Noun

A light brown to brownish orange colour

Finnish: kellanruskea (fi)

Hungarian: világosbarna (hu)

Derived terms

• tawny owl
• tawny port