# fawn
## English
### Pronunciation

* (UK) IPA: /fɔːn/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (US) IPA: /fɔn/
* (cot–caught merger) IPA: /fɑn/
* Homophone: faun
* Rhymes: -ɔːn

### Etymology 1

From Middle English fawne, fowne, foun, from Old French faon, foon, feon, from Vulgar Latin *fētōnem, from Latin fētus (“offspring, young”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁(y)- (“to suckle, nurse”). Displaced native Old English hindċealf (literally “deer calf”). Doublet of fetus.

#### Noun

fawn (plural fawns)
* A young deer.
    Synonym: deerling
* A pale brown colour tinted with yellow, like that of a fawn.
    fawn:
* (obsolete) The young of an animal; a whelp.
** 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “(please specify |book=I to XXXVII)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], (please specify |tome=1 or 2), London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC:she [the tigress] rageth upon the shore and the sands, for the losse of her fawnes

##### Derived terms

* fawn antechinus
* fawnish
* fawnlike
* fawnling
* Fawnlock
* fawn response
* fawnskin
* in fawn

##### Translations
#### Adjective

fawn (not comparable)
* Of the fawn colour.

##### Derived terms

* fawn lily

##### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

#### Verb

fawn (third-person singular simple present fawns, present participle fawning, simple past and past participle fawned)
* (intransitive) To give birth to a fawn.

### Etymology 2

From Middle English fawnen, from Old English fagnian, alternative form of fæġnian (“to celebrate”), whence Middle English fainen, English fain. Cognate with Old Norse fagna. See also fain.

#### Verb

fawn (third-person singular simple present fawns, present participle fawning, simple past and past participle fawned)
* (intransitive) To exhibit affection or attempt to please.
* (intransitive) To seek favour by flattery and obsequious behaviour. [with on or upon]
    Synonyms: grovel, wheedle, soft-soap, toady
** 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:You showed your teeth like apes, and fawned like hounds.
** 1671, John Milton, Paradise Regained, book 1:Thou with trembling fear, / Or like a fawning parasite, obeyest.
** 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XXIII, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:courtiers who fawn on a master while they betray him
** 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired.
* (intransitive, of a dog) To show devotion or submissiveness by wagging its tail, nuzzling, licking, etc.

##### Derived terms

* fawner
* fawn over
* outfawn
* overfawn

##### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

#### Noun

fawn (plural fawns)
* (rare) A servile cringe or bow.
* Base flattery.

### See also

* Appendix:Colors

### References

* ↑ Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “fawn”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
* ↑ James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Fawn”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC.
* ↑ “fawn”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

## Middle English
### Alternative forms

* faun, faawn

### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin Faunus.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /fau̯n/

### Noun

fawn (plural fawnes or fawny)
* faun, satyr

#### Descendants

* English: faun

#### References

* “faun, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

## Welsh
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /vau̯n/

### Verb

fawn
* Soft mutation of bawn.

### Noun

fawn
* Soft mutation of mawn.

### Mutation

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh. All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.