tawny
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: tôʹnē
ipa: /ˈtɔːni/
ipa: /ˈtɔni/
ipa: /ˈtɑ-/
rhymes: -ɔːni
Forms: form: tawnies
form: tawnying
form: tawnied
form: tawnied
Etymology: 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”)
Senses: examples: text: So many friends, their friendſhips daily breake, / That fevve are faithfull, if that fevve be any: / The Sunne ſo ſoone, the painted face vvill tavvny.
ref: 1602, Nicholas Breton, The Mothers Blessing, London: […] T[homas] C[reede] for Iohn Smethick, […], →OCLC, signature [D4], recto:
text: He [Vulcan] ſmels all ſmoake, and vvith his naſty ſvveate / Tavvnies my skinne, out on him vgly knaue, / Mars is my loue, and he my ſvveets ſhall haue.
ref: 1613, Thomas Heywood, The Brazen Age, […], London: […] Nicholas Okes, […], →OCLC, Act II, signature I2, verso:
text: Alas 'tis faded, ſoyl'd vvith the ſmoke of Luſt; / So ſvvarthy as if that glorious face of thine / VVere tavvnyed underneath the torrid Line: […]
ref: 1632, Fra[ncis] Quarles, “On Gods Image”, in Divine Fancies: Digested into Epigrammes, Meditations, and Observations, London: […] Iohn Marriot, […], →OCLC, book III, page 148:
text: The General stares into the sandstorm churned up by all that movement. Like a curtain draped across the world, tawnying the October sky.
ref: 2017, Nathan Englander, “2014, Limbo”, in Dinner at the Centre of the Earth, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →ISBN:
glosses: To cause (someone or something) to have a light brown to brownish orange colour; to tan, to tawn.
examples: text: The countenance alone bespoke the years and the cares of John M‘Whirter. The deep wrinkled brow—the cheek plaited, and tawnied in the sun and the frosts of the north— […]
ref: 1825, chapter XI, in The Abduction; or, The Adventures of Major Sarney: A Story of the Times of Charles the Second. […], volume II, London: […] [William Clowes] for Charles Knight, […], →OCLC, page 249:
text: In his drowse it all turned gleaming and mixing in him, his whole life, like the river gleaming taut between the trees. And everything that had ever happened to him tawnied over by the voluptuous light of the last fall, and his mouth watered for it all.
ref: 1990, Meridel Le Sueur, “Gone Home”, in Elaine Hedges, editor, Ripening: Selected Work, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, →ISBN, page 215:
text: [C]olheita is actually a tawny Port from a single vintage. In other words, it has aged (and softened and tawnied) in wood for many years.
ref: 2019, Ed McCarthy, Mary Ewing-Mulligan, “Wine Roads Less Traveled: Fortified and Dessert Wines”, in Wine for Dummies (For Dummies), 7th edition, Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, part 5 (Wine’s Exotic Face), page 318:
glosses: To become a light brown to brownish orange colour; to tan, to tawn.
Derived terms: word: tawnied
word: tawnying