English
brown
Brown comes from Middle English broun ‘dark, dull, murky (in color)’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *brūnaz.
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*brūnaz1reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*brūn1reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150brūn1‘brown’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500broun1‘dark’
- Englishearliest quotation 1807brown1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English brown
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1807, Joel Barlow: “A trembling twilight o'er the welkin moves, / Browns…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*brūnazWiktionary, English brownreconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*brūnWiktionary, English brownreconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150brūnWiktionary, English brown‘brown’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500brounWiktionary, English brown‘dark’
- Englishearliest quotation 1807brownWiktionary, English brown. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1807, Joel Barlow: “A trembling twilight o'er the welkin moves, / Browns…”
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with brown, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH-
through Proto-Germanic *brūnaz
through Proto-West Germanic *brūn
- bruin ← bruun ← *brūn
17 more relatives in the full family tree
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Today it means
noun A colour like that of chocolate or coffee.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “brown”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *brūnaz / brown