tawny.
Of a light brown to brownish orange colour; orangey brown tinged with gold.
Meaning & usage
Of a light brown to brownish orange colour; orangey brown tinged with gold.
Where this word comes from
The adjective is derived from Middle English tauni, tawne (“having a brownish-orange colour”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman taune, tawné, and Old French tané, tanné, tanney (“of a tan colour”), an adjective use of the past participle of taner (“to turn hide into leather, tan”), from tan (“pulped oak bark used to tan leather, tanbark”), ultimately from Proto-Celtic *tannos (“green oak”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *(s)dʰnwos, *(s)dʰonu (“fir”). The -aw- spelling (also -au- in Middle English) seems to have been due to the pronunciation of Old French tané. The verb is derived from the adjective. Cognates * Breton tann * Medieval Latin tannāre (“to dye a tawny color; to tan”) * Old Irish caerthann (“rowan”)
To cause (someone or something) to have a light brown to brownish orange colour; to tan, to tawn.
To become a light brown to brownish orange colour; to tan, to tawn.
Where this word comes from
The adjective is derived from Middle English tauni, tawne (“having a brownish-orange colour”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman taune, tawné, and Old French tané, tanné, tanney (“of a tan colour”), an adjective use of the past participle of taner (“to turn hide into leather, tan”), from tan (“pulped oak bark used to tan leather, tanbark”), ultimately from Proto-Celtic *tannos (“green oak”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *(s)dʰnwos, *(s)dʰonu (“fir”). The -aw- spelling (also -au- in Middle English) seems to have been due to the pronunciation of Old French tané. The verb is derived from the adjective. Cognates * Breton tann * Medieval Latin tannāre (“to dye a tawny color; to tan”) * Old Irish caerthann (“rowan”)
A light brown to brownish orange colour.
A light brown to brownish orange colour. Synonym of tenné (“a rarely-used tincture of orange or bright brown”).
Something of a light brown or brownish orange colour (particularly if it has the word tawny in its name).
Something of a light brown or brownish orange colour (particularly if it has the word tawny in its name). The common bullfinch or Eurasian bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula).
In full tawny port: a sweet, fortified port wine which is blended and matured in wooden casks.
A fabric of a light brown to brownish orange colour.
A person with skin of a brown colour.
Tawny frogmouth.
Tawny owl.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English tauni, tawne (“brownish-orange colour; cloth of this colour; sweet beverage of this colour”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman tawné, and Old French tané, tanné, tanney (“tan colour; cloth of this colour”), from tané (verb): see further at etymology 1. Sense 2.1 (“Eurasian bullfinch”) is due to the brown colour of the female.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.