tawny
Part of speech: adj
verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: government
heraldry
hobbies
lifestyle
monarchy
nobility
politics
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”)
Inflected forms:
form: tawnier
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: tawniest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: tawney
pos: adj
tags: alternative
form: tawnies
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: tawnying
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: tawnied
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: tawnied
pos: verb
tags: past
form: tawnies
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: tawnys
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: Of a light brown to brownish orange colour; orangey brown tinged with gold.
pos: adj
examples: And if any of your nation attempte once to ſtoppe me in my iorney now towards Calais, […] I in my defence ſhall colour and make red your tawny ground with the effuſion of chriſtian bloud: […]
The VVooſell cock, ſo blacke of hevve, / VVith Orange tavvny bill, / The Throſtle, vvith his note ſo true, / The VVren, vvith little quill.
Come, vve muſt haue you turne Fiddler againe, ſlaue, 'get a Baſe Violin at your backe, and march in a Tavvnie Coate, vvith one ſleeue, to Gooſe-faire, and then you'll knovve vs; […]
To the Queen he gave […] a ſmall Box full of large Needles; then he gave her ſome courſe brovvn Thread, and ſhovv'd her hovv to thred the Needle and ſovv any Thing together vvith the Thread; all vvhich ſhe admired exceedingly, and call'd her Tavvny Maids of Honour about her, that they might learn alſo.
[T]he vvatch-dogs and aſſembled ſvvains / Have driv'n a tavvny lion from the ſtalls, […]
[T]he head waiter inquired with respectful solicitude whether that port, being a light and tawny wine, was suited to his taste, or whether he would wish to try a fruity port with greater body.
[P]erhaps they metamorphose themselves into a tawny squirrel that scampers away and mocks you from the topmost bough.
There were the tawny rocks, like lions couchant, defying the ocean, whose waves incessantly dashed against and scoured them with vast quantities of gravel.
He did not come in the dawning; he did not come at noon; / And out o' the tawny sunset, before the rise o' the moon, / When the road was a gypsy's ribbon, looping the purple moor, / A red-coat troop came marching— / Marching—marching— / King George's men came marching, up to the old inn-door.
They fell a-twittering among themselves once more, and this time their intoxicating babble was of violet seas, tawny sands, and lizard-haunted walls.
I never thought I'd meet a girl like you / With auburn hair and tawny eyes
Dio Cassius, writing more than one hundred years after the event, described Boudicca as 'very tall, in appearance most terrifying … the glance of her eye most fierce, her voice harsh … a great mass of the tawniest hair fell to her hips'.
ANTILLEAN NIGHTHAWK Chordeiles gundlachii […] Somewhat tawnier and smaller than Common Nighthawk, but readily distinguished from it only by call.
gloss: To cause (someone or something) to have a light brown to brownish orange colour; to tan, to tawn.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 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.
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.
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: […]
The General stares into the sandstorm churned up by all that movement. Like a curtain draped across the world, tawnying the October sky.
gloss: To become a light brown to brownish orange colour; to tan, to tawn.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: 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— […]
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.
[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.
gloss: A light brown to brownish orange colour.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: Neere to Canuſia, the ſheepe be deepe yellovv or tavvnie; and about Tarentum, they are of a brovvne and duſkiſh colour.
Despise not my discolour'd look: / This tawny from the sun I took.
From the follovving Dye are Compoſed the beſt Tavvnies, Grey and Crimſon Goat Colours. […] The Silk muſt be put in vvhen the Suds are cold, for the colder the Suds, the blevver the Violet Colour, vvhich muſt alvvays be blevver than the Tavvnies.
And thus by varying the Colours you ſhall produce all ſorts of mixtures: So black and vvhite variouſly mixed make a vaſt Company of deep and light Greys, Bleus and Yellovvs, many Greens; Red and Yellovv Orange Tavvnies, […] the more the Red the deeper the Orange Tavvnies, and ſo forth; and thus muſt they in your VVork be ſhaded and heightened vvith Colours of their ovvn Affinity: […]
'Gad, if Miss S. will have me, I'm her man. I ain't particular about a shade or so of tawny.
gloss: A light brown to brownish orange colour.
pos: noun
tags: countable
specifically
uncountable
examples: [T]he Herehaught [herald] muſt have a ſinguler reſpect to the face of him that ſhould haue the Armes, vvhere he ſhal vvel perceiue in vvhat ſeaſõ of the yere, his ovvn complexion vvill ſerue him to do beſt ſeruice in: […] If in Somer, either a Hound or Salamandra, or ſome part of them, of the colour Bruske, vvhich is betvveene Geules and tavvney.
Tavvny (ſaith Leigh [i.e., Gerard Legh]) is a Colour of vvorſhip, and of ſome Heralds it is called Bruske, and is moſt commonly borne of French Gentlemen, but very fevv doe beare it in England. In Blazon it is knovvne by the name of Tenne. It is (ſaith he) the ſureſt colour that is (of ſo bright a hevv being compounded) for it is made of tvvo bright Colours, vvhich are Red and Yellovv: […]
Tenne, vvhich is the tavvny or Orange colour, is marked by diagonal lines dravvn from the Siniſter to the Dexter ſide of the Shield, traverſed by perpendicular lines from the Chief; […]
Some heraldic writers extend the number of tinctures to seven, by the addition of sanguine or murrey, dark blood or mulberry-colour, and tenné, tawny, or orange-colour; while others who admit them into the catalogue declare them, at the same time, to be stainant, or disgraceful; but, as I have stated in my notice of Abatements (p. 171), it is very improbable any one would bear arms so degraded; and the strongest proof that no such opinion with respect to these two colours existed in the days of chivalry is, that the livery colours of the house of York were murrey and blue, and that tawny was apparently much affected by the retainers of the nobility and Church dignitaries.
gloss: Something of a light brown or brownish orange colour (particularly if it has the word tawny in its name).
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: Iohn VVittie his great tavvny Gilloflovver is for forme of grovving, in leafe and flovver altogether like vnto the ordinary tavvny, the flovver onely, becauſe it is the faireſt and greateſt that any other hath nourſed vp, maketh the difference, as alſo that it is of a faire deepe ſcarlet colour. There are alſo diuers other Tavvnies, either lighter or ſadder, either leſſe or more double, that they cannot be numbered, and all riſing (as I ſaid before) from ſovving the ſeede of ſome of them: […]
The Tawny Owl may easily be induced, under favourable conditions, to take up its quarters near the houses of men. The writer is familiar with a pair of Tawnies which have nested for many years in one of several covered-in boxes fitted up in the trees that overhang the shrubberies in the grounds. […] There are other Tawnies in the woods and parks about, but this pair are the lords of their own district, for like all birds of prey they require a large area for their hunt for food.
gloss: Something of a light brown or brownish orange colour (particularly if it has the word tawny in its name).
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: TAWNY. A bullfinch. Somerset.
gloss: In full tawny port: a sweet, fortified port wine which is blended and matured in wooden casks.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: Tawny is the most versatile Port style. The best tawnies are good-quality wines that have faded to a pale garnet or brownish red color during long wood aging. […] We consider 10- and 20-year-old tawnies the best buys; the older ones aren't always worth the extra bucks.
A ten-year-old tawny is a good place to start with a tawny port novice, who might otherwise be put off by the oxidized flavors (i.e., more wood and earth notes than fruit) that come with a very old tawny.
gloss: A fabric of a light brown to brownish orange colour.
pos: noun
tags: countable
obsolete
uncountable
examples: [N]o perſone, or perſones, occupiyng the ſeate of diẽg, ſhal die, or altre into colours, or cauſe to be died, or altred into colours, any wollen clothes, as broune blewes, pieukes, tawnies, or violettes, except the ſame wollẽ clothes be perfeictly boiled, greined or madered vpon the woade, & ſhot with good, and ſufficient corke, or orchal after a due, ſubſtancial, & ſufficient maner of workemanſhip, according to thauncient workmanſhip in time paſt vſed, vpõ peine for euery defalt to forfeite .xx. s̃.
You ſhall doe well to ſend ſuch ſorts [of clothes] as be liuely to the ſight, and ſome blackes for womens garments, with ſome Orenge colours and tawneis.
gloss: A person with skin of a brown colour.
pos: noun
tags: countable
obsolete
uncountable
examples: The Tavvnies among vvhom vve came, have VVatered our Soyl, vvith the Blood, of many Hundred of our Inhabitants.
Senegal ſeparates the Azoaghes, Moors or Tavvnies, from the real Blacks; ſo that on one ſide of the River are the Moors of a Tavvny Complexion, and the other is Inhabited by People that are perfectly Black.
Upon our arrival at Morocco, vve found the vvhole kingdom a ſcene of blood and confuſion. Fifty ſons of the emperor Muley-Iſhmael had each their adherents: this produced fifty civil vvars of blacks againſt blacks, of tavvnies againſt tavvnies, and of mulattoes againſt mulattoes.
gloss: Tawny frogmouth.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: Tawny owl.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
Derived words: tawnied
tawnying
tawnies
Translations:
lang: Afrikaans
word: oranjebruin
lang: Arabic
word: صُحْرَة
roman: ṣuḥra
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 茶褐色
roman: cháhèsè, cháhésè
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 黃褐色 /黄褐色
roman: huánghèsè
lang: Czech
word: žlutohnědá
lang: Finnish
word: kellanruskea
lang: French
word: fauve
lang: West-Frisian
word: taan
lang: Hungarian
word: világosbarna
lang: Indonesian
word: soga
lang: Irish
word: crón
lang: Italian
word: tenné
lang: Japanese
word: 茶褐色
roman: chakasshoku
lang: Korean
word: 다갈색
roman: dagalsaek
lang: Middle English
word: tauni
lang: Middle English
word: tawne
lang: Romanian
word: lignicolor
lang: Sanskrit
word: अरुण
roman: aruṇa
lang: Sanskrit
word: कद्रु
roman: kadru
lang: Spanish
word: león
lang: Spanish
word: pardo león
lang: Spanish
word: color leonado
lang: Tamil
word: கபிலம்
roman: kapilam
lang: Tamil
word: பிசங்கம்
roman: picaṅkam
lang: Tamil
word: பிங்கலம்
roman: piṅkalam
lang: Tamil
word: பிங்கம்
roman: piṅkam
lang: Telugu
word: కడారము
roman: kaḍāramu
lang: Telugu
word: కాషాయము
roman: kāṣāyamu
lang: Zulu
word: úbumpôfu