| 释义 |
▪ I. brown, a.|braʊn|
Forms: 1 brún, 3 brun(e, 3–4 broun, 3–6 broune, 4–7 browne, (5 browyn), 5– brown.
[Common Teut.: OE. brún = OFris. brûn (MDu. bruun, Du. bruin), OHG. (MHG., MLG.) brûn, (mod.Ger. braun), ON. brún-n (Sw. brun, Da. bruun):—OTeut. *brûn-o-z, *brûn-â, corresp. to Lith. brunas brown:—Aryan type *bhrû-ˈno -s, root *bhru-: cf. beaver. Adopted in Romanic, giving med.L. brūnus, It., Sp., Pg. bruno, Pr. and F. brun, whence also brunir to burnish, q.v. (OHG. brûn meant ‘glänzend’ shining, as well as ‘dunkel-farbig’ dark-coloured.)
The shade to which the name was given was originally a dark one, as seen by sense 1; also by Johnson's sole explanation ‘The name of a colour, compounded of black and any other colour’. Levins Manip. 1570 has ‘Broune, black, ater; Broune fuscus’. Very dark brown is close to black, as in the so-called ‘black’ hair of men.]
1. a. Dusky, dark. (Now only poetic, and regarded as transf. from sense 2.)
a1000Metr. Boeth. xxvi. 58 Sio brune yð. c1325E.E. Allit. P. A. 536 Sone þe worlde bycom wel broun, Þe sunne watz doun. c1400Mandeville 160 Here colour is liche Vyolet, or more browne than the Violettes. c1449Pol. Poems (1859) II. 221 Oure welevette hatte, That keueryd us from mony stormys browne. 1667Milton P.L. ix. 1088 Where highest Woods..spread thir umbrage broad, And brown as Evening. a1725Pope Odyss. xvii. 215 Or ere brown evening spreads her chilly shade. 1792S. Rogers Pleas. Mem. i. 15 Arched with ivy's brownest shade. 1854Tennyson To Rev. F. D. Maurice iv, I watch the twilight falling brown.
b. fig. Gloomy, serious. See brown study.
2. a. The proper name of a composite colour produced by a mixture of orange and black (or of red, yellow, and black), and varying greatly in shade according to the proportion of the constituents, as a red brown, yellowish brown, dark brown. Brown is the colour produced by partial charring or carbonization of starch or woody fibre, as in toasted bread or potatoes, peat, lignite, withered leaves, etc.
a1300Cursor M. 18833 His hare [was] like to þe nute brun, Quen it for ripnes fals dun. 1393Langl. P. Pl. C. ix. 330 Ale..of þe best and Brounest þat brewesters sellen. c1420Liber Cocorum (1862) 32 Lay hur [the gose] to fyre and rost hyr browne. c1440Promp. Parv. 54 Browne, fuscus, subniger, nigellus. 1600Shakes. A.Y.L. iii. iv. 9 Ros. His very haire Is of the dissembling colour. Cel. Something browner then Iudasses. 1725Lond. Gaz. No. 6381/4 With a good Stock of Pale and Brown Beer. 1708S. Centlivre Busie Body i. i. 13 My last Refuge, a brown Musquet. 1766Pennant Zool. (1768) I. 457 The head and whole upper part [of the female sparrow] are brown. 1799Southey Nondescr., Snuff, Black, brown dust, From the oft reiterated pinch profuse. 1805Scott Last Minstr. vi. ii, Land of brown heath and shaggy wood. 1859Jephson Brittany i. 2 The brown rocky stream.
b. Used in naming varieties or species of animals, plants, minerals, etc., as brown ant, brown bear, brown owl; brown willow; brown hæmatite, etc.
c1460J. Russell Bk. Nurture in Babees Bk. (1868) 183 The makyng of a bathe medicinable..Brown fenelle. 1767G. White Selborne xi. (1789) 31 The young of the brown owl will eat indiscriminately all that is brought. 1843Portlock Geol. 225 Earthy Brown Hæmatite, both compact and decomposed. 1861Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. VI. 69 Brown Bent-grass. 1868Wood Homes without H. vii. 126 The most admirable subterranean architecture is perhaps that of the Brown Ant. 1882Garden 28 Jan. 62/3 Lettuces..the best of all for winter, the old Brown Cos. 1884St. James's Gaz. 7 Aug. 4/2 On some estates in Scotland..a brown hare is now rarely seen.
3. Of persons: Having the skin of a brown or dusky colour:
a. as a racial characteristic;
b. as an individual peculiarity among ‘white’ races; either natural (dark-complexioned, brunette), or as an effect of exposure (sunburnt, tanned).
a1000Cædmon's Ex. 70 (Bosw.) Brune leode. c1384Chaucer H. Fame 139 Vulcano That in his face was ful broune. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. iv. ii. (1495) 80 In hoote countrees comen forth blacke men and broun. c1420Chron. Vilod. 505 Þaw þu be broune þu art ryȝt welle shape and fere. 1589Warner Alb. Eng. v. xxvi. 127 That browne Girle of mine. 1613Shakes. Hen. VIII, iii. ii. 295 When the browne Wench Lay kissing in your Armes. a1763Shenstone Odes (1765) 226 Brown exercise will lead thee where she reigns. 1764Goldsm. Trav. 416 Where..the brown Indian marks with murd'rous aim. 1834M. G. Lewis Jrnl. W. Ind. 53 The fair sex elsewhere are called the ‘Brown Girls’ in Jamaica. 1864Tennyson En. Ard. 704 Enoch was so brown, so bow'd, So broken.
†4. In reference to the sword, steel, etc., it seems to have meant: Burnished, glistening. Obs. [With the sense cf. MDu. brun ‘shining’ (Kalkar), and F. brunir to ]
c1325E. E. Allit. P. A. 989 Brende golde bryȝt, As glemande glas burnist broun. c1380Sir Ferumb. 5609 Wyþ ys swerd of style broun. c1460Lybeaus Disc. 552 Swordes bryght and broune. a1802Ballad ‘Cospatrick’ xxii. in Child Ballads i. 70/2 My bonny brown sword.
5. a. to do brown: perhaps, ‘to do thoroughly’, suggested by roasting; to deceive, ‘take in’. slang.
a1600John Bon 162 in Hazl. E.P.P. IV. 16 Ha! browne done! 1837Dickens Pickw. xliii, ‘He goes in rayther raw, Sammy’, said Mr. Weller..‘and he'll come out done so ex-ceedin' brown that his most formiliar friends won't know him’. 1840Barham Ingol. Leg., Execution, We are all of us done so uncommonly brown!
†b. Cf. round. Obs.
1611Chapman May Daye Plays 1873 II. 338 You haue a whole browne dozen a suters at least.
6. Comb. General relations:
a. qualifying the names of other colours: as brown-bay, brown-black, brown-gold, brown-green, brown-pink, brown-red, brown-rosy;
b. parasynthetic, as brown-barrelled, brown-bearded, brown-coloured, brown-complexioned, brown-edged, brown-eyed, brown-faced, brown-haired, brown-headed, brown-leaved (brown-leafed), brown-locked, brown-roofed, brown-sailed, brown-skinned, brown-stemmed;
c. brown-wash v. (nonce-wd.).
1594Blundevil Exerc. v. xii. (ed. 7) 558 The other nations under the hot Zone, be of colour *browne bay, like a Chesnut. 1753Scots Mag. Aug. 421/1 Thomas Hall Esq.'s brown-bay gelding.
1882J. Hawthorne Fort. Fool i. xi, One big *brown-bearded fellow.
1849D. Campbell Inorg. Chem. 246 The *brown-black bisulphide. 1942S. Spender Life & Poet 28 The field is green in summer and brown-black in winter.
1835–6Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. I. 41/1 note, Eight *brown-coloured masses.
1704in Lond. Gaz. No. 4034/4 John Jackson..aged near 40, *brown Complectioned.
1824–30Miss Mitford Village Ser. iv. (1863) 314 Delf, blue and white, *brown-edged and green-edged.
1865C. M. Yonge Clever Woman I. iii. 56 A brown-haired, *brown-eyed child of seven.
1909Daily Chron. 7 May 4/4 The sun..glittered on her *brown-gold hair.
1882Garden 10 June 400/1 The downy, *brown-green young shoots.
1686Lond. Gaz. No. 2100/4 A tall slender Man, *brown hair'd.
1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. III. v. iv. 279 Church Formulas seemed to flourish; a little *brown-leaved or so, but not browner than of late years.
1855J. Edwards Paint. in Oil Colours 27 *Brown Pink..is a rich transparent olive, inclining sometimes to green, and sometimes towards the warmth of orange.
1835Hawthorne Amer. Note-bks. (1871) I. 14 Some of the oaks are now a deep *brown red.
1926D. H. Lawrence Sun v. 19 Ripe now, and *brown-rosy all over with the sun.
1744Mitchell in Phil. Trans. XLIII. 112 Like the Skin of many *brown-skinn'd white People. 1904E. F. Benson Challoners viii. 162 Helen's soft brown-skinned hand.
1795Southey Lett. fr. Spain (1799) 106 Rubbed over, or rather *brown-washed, with clay.
7. Special combs.: brown ale (see quot. 1969); brown algæ, the algæ of seaweeds constituting the class Phæophyceæ, which contain a brown colouring matter in addition to chlorophyll; brown-back U.S., (a) the red-breasted snipe or dowitcher in summer plumage; (b) the great marbled godwit, Limosa fedoa (Cent. Dict., 1889); † brown baker, a baker of brown bread; brown-banded snake (see quots.); † brown bastard, a sweet wine (see bastard 4); brown belt, the belt worn by a student of judo or karate who has attained a certain grade, usu. that next below black belt; also, a person qualified to wear such a belt; Brown Betty chiefly U.S., a baked pudding containing apples and breadcrumbs; brown blaze (see quot.); brown coal, a name given to lignite, and to some varieties of coal intermediate between lignite and true coal; brown earth, a type of soil developed in temperate humid regions under deciduous forests, having a brown surface-layer rich in humus; brown-fly, an artificial fly used in angling; brown-footed rat (see quot.); brown gannet, brown gull, names of the booby (Sula fusca); brown goods, electrical merchandise such as radios, televisions, and hi-fi units, conventionally housed in brown casings (as distinct from the white of washing machines, cookers, etc.: cf. white goods s.v. white a. 11 e); brown gum, ‘the inspissated juice of the Eucalyptus resinifera’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.); brown-heart, (a) a species of tree in Guiana; (b) a disease of stored apples and pears characterized by internal brown decay; (c) a disease of turnips and related plants in which a deficiency of boron in the soil causes internal brown decay; brown-hen, the female of the Black Grouse (Tetrao tetrix); brown-holland (see Holland1); brown house U.S. = brown-stone house; brown job slang, a soldier; also collect., the Army; brown jolly, West-Indian corruption of brinjal; brown moth, an artificial fly used in angling by night; brown mould, Mucor mucedo and other fungi found on decaying fruit, etc.; brown-nose [‘from the implication that servility is tantamount to having one's nose in the anus of the person from whom advancement is sought’ (Webster 1961)], chiefly U.S. slang, a sycophant; hence as v. trans. and intr., to curry favour (with), to flatter; so brown-noser; brown ochre, a variety of limonite; also the pigment prepared from it; brown rice, unpolished rice, with only the husk of the grain removed; brown rot, any of various diseases of plants and trees characterized by browning and decay; brown rust, a disease of wheat caused by a parasitic fungus (Trichobasis rubigo vera); brown sauce, a brown-coloured savoury sauce, esp. one made with browned fat and flour; also fig.; brown sherry, sweet sherry; Brown-shirt, a Nazi; so called from the brown shirt worn as part of the uniform; so brown-shirted ppl. a.; brown-sleeve a., wearing brown sleeves; brown snake, one of several poisonous Australian snakes of the genus Pseudonaja (formerly included in Demansia); brown-spar (Min.), a variety of dolomite; also applied to varieties of the allied minerals ankerite and magnesite, and to chalybite or native ferrous carbonate; brown-stone, (a) (see quot. 1875); (b) U.S., one or other variety of a dark-brown sandstone used for building; also ellipt., a house built of brown-stone, and attrib. and transf., designating the well-to-do; brown stout, a superior kind of porter; brown sugar, unrefined or partially refined sugar as opposed to crystallized or loaf-sugar; brown-tail(ed) (moth) (see quots.); brown-thrasher, ‘the (American) Ferruginous Thrush, called also the Brown Thrush, Turdus rufus’ (Bartlett); brown top, any of various pasture grasses in Australia and New Zealand (see quots.); brown tubes pl. (see quot.); brown ware, a common kind of pottery. See also Brown Bess, brown bread, Brown George, brown paper, brown study.
1776W. Reddington Pract. Treat. Brewing (ed. 3) xxxi. 59 How common *brown Ale is to be yeasted. I understand here such ale as is intended to be drank new and mixed with stale beer. 1842S. Bamford Passages in Life of Radical II. xlvii. 239 Our weaver lads must put up..with jannocks and barley bread, and barm dumplings, and brown ale. 1969Beer & Cider (Know the Drink) 32/1 Brown Ale, sometimes called ‘Home-brewed’. Dark and usually rather sweet. It is the bottled equivalent of mild ale and is a good mixer with it.
1902Encycl. Brit. XXV. 272/1 A white efflorescence which appears on certain *Brown Algæ..when they are dried in the air.
1844J. E. DeKay Zool. N.Y. ii. 255 The Dowitchee..or *Brown-back. 1872Coues N. Amer. Birds 252 Macrorhamphus. Red-breasted Snipe. Gray Snipe. Brown-back. 1893Outing (U.S.) XXII. 96/2 ‘Brown-back’ snipe.
1528in Turner Sel. Records Oxford 58 Y⊇ corporation of y⊇ *browne bakers. 1656J. Reeve Let. in Spirit. Epistles (1831) Suppl., In Trinity Lane, over against a Brown Bakers. 1720Stow's Surv. (ed. Strype 1754) II. v. xiv. 312/2 The Company of the Brown bakers, a Society of long standing and continuance.
1869Krefft Snakes Australia 55 The large-scaled snake..is confounded, in Victoria in particular, with the Tiger or *Brown-banded Snake (Hoplocephalus curtus). 1887Encycl. Brit. XXII. 197/1 The Brown-banded Snake (Hoplocephalus curtus), with a similar distribution [throughout Australia], and also common in Tasmania, from 5 to 6 feet long.
1603Shakes. Meas. for M. iii. ii. 4 We shall haue all the world drinke *browne and white bastard. 1609Ev. Wom. in Hum. i. i. in Bullen O. Pl. IV, A Figge for Browne-bastard.
1937J. Kano Judo (Jujutsu) iii. 38 A *brown belt is used from the third Kyū grade to the first Kyū grade of the senior division (adults). 1939T. S. Kuwashima Judo p. vii, In 1916 he came to the United States as an accredited representative to teach Judo, and to confer the varying degrees of Brown Belt and Black Belt, the belts representing the degree of skill attained by the student. 1968N.Y. Times 1 Apr. 66 Winners in the form divisions were Toyotaro Miyazaki of Jackson Heights, Queens, black belt; Larry Pomilio of North Miami Beach, Fla., brown belt [etc.].
1864Yale Lit. Mag. XXIX. 187 (Th.), [In training,] tea, coffee, pies, and ‘*brown Betty’ must next be sacrificed. 1911S. E. White Bobby Orde (1916) x. 126 It was the season of..apple-tapioca and Brown Betty. 1948‘J. Tey’ Franchise Aff. xv. 164 Brown-betty with thick cream.
1854Scoffern in Orr's Circ. Sc. Chem. 458 The first portions of volatile matter which pass over when zinc ore is distilled in contact with carbonaceous matter, and which on account of their burning with a brown flame, are called by the technical name of *brown blaze, contain very little zinc, and are chiefly composed of arsenic and cadmium.
1833Lyell Princ. Geol. III. 199 This *brown coal consists of..beds of lignite of various thickness interstratified with the clays and sands. 1878Lawrence Cotta's Rocks Class. 321 Brown coal..differs from ordinary black coal in containing a much greater proportion of bitumen.
1932Forestry VI. 27 The soil type of the dales is the ‘*brown earth’, characterized in the vertical section (profile) by the dark brown to black colour of the top layers of the mineral soil. 1953Proc. Prehist. Soc. XIX. 131 Deforestation..would in time change such a forest soil by decalcification into an ordinary brownearth.
1787Best Angling (ed. 2) 111 The *Brown-fly, or Dun-Drake..its wings are made off the feather of a Pheasant's wing, which..exactly resembles the wing of the fly.
1884Encycl. Brit. XVII. 5/2 Mus fuscipes, Waterh., the *Brown-footed Rat of western and southern Australia.
1976*Brown goods [see white goods s.v. white a. 11 e]. 1980Austral. Financial Rev. 15 Aug. 9/1 Waltons cut retail prices by up to 50 per cent on furniture, household items and kitchenware while white and browngoods sold for cost price and less. 1984Times 5 Oct. 27/1 The brown goods demand charges on.
1796Stedman Surinam II. xxviii. 335 The *brown-heart is in hardness of the same consistency as the purple-heart, and the green-heart. 1923F. Kidd & C. West in Dept. Sci. & Ind. Res., Food Invest. Board, Spec. Rep. XII. (title), Brown-heart—a functional disease of apples and pears. 1928F. T. Brooks Plant Dis. ii. 16 Brown Heart in apples has been shown..to be caused by asphyxiation of the fleshy part of the fruit when there is a large increase of carbon dioxide and a decrease of oxygen in the surrounding atmosphere. 1950N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. May 476/3 Although the size and outward appearance of turnips or swedes affected with brown heart are quite good, when opened up they may have internal greyish or brownish markings in the flesh.
1845S. Judd Margaret ii. viii. 324 The Deacon's..was a small, one story *brown house. 1861Mrs. Stowe Pearl Orr's Isl. I. ii. 10 Down near the end of Orr's Island..stands a brown house.
1943Hunt & Pringle Service Slang 18 *Brown job, the Army (R.A.F. name). 1952R. Sherbrooke-Walker Khaki & Blue i. 4 Another aspect of R.A.F. dress which struck the ‘brown job’, as they called their brothers in the Army. 1954‘N. Blake’ Whisper in Gloom ii. xvi. 230 Can you hear me, bluebottles and brown job? 1963Economist 29 June 1391/3 General Delacombe was a pretty undiplomatic brown-job.
1756P. Browne Jamaica 173 The *Brown-Jolly or Bolangena..was first imported into Jamaica by the Jews. 1814Leenan Hortus Jamaic. I. 280 Sometimes called brown jolly or mad-apple.
1837J. Kirkbride Northern Angler 48 The *Brown Moth..is made with a feather from the wing of the dark-brown owl.
1883Gd. Words Nov. 732/1 In the *brown-mould quite a different arrangement prevails.
1939Amer. Speech XIV. 25/1 *Brown nose, v., to curry favor, especially for rank; n., a cadet who curries favor.
1950Hemingway Across River xxxiii. 208 The *brown-nosers..and all the jerks. Ibid. vii. 57, I have erected the defence against brown-nosing my superiors and brown-nosing the world. 1960J. Symons Progress of Crime xv. 91 If you don't..get cracking on a few little jobs for this paper instead of spending your time brown-nosing Mr. Fairfield, you [etc.]. 1969M. Pugh Last Place Left v. 34 It was part of the tradition to hate a Highland laird or be a brown-nose.
1823P. Nicholson Pract. Build. 415 *Brown-Ochre is a warm brown or foul orange colour. 1855J. Edwards Paint. Oil Colours 19 Brown Ochre..is a dark ochre of great value in landscape painting..It is of a dark brownish yellow.
1916Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 20 July 11/5 The Vancouver consignment included sake, *brown rice, white rice, shoyu. 1969Listener 17 July 79/3 Macrobiotics is a life science discovered in Japan by Georges Ohsawa and it's based on the two pillars of philosophy and diet—the staple food being brown rice.
1894C. M. Weed Fungi & Fungicides 56 The *brown rot of stone fruit is probably familiar to every grower of plums, peaches or cherries in..the United States. 1899G. Newman Bacteria i. 37 Bacterial brown-rot of potatoes and tomatoes is another plant disease probably due to a bacillus. 1936J. Percival Agric. Bot. (ed. 8) 816 One of the best examples of bacterial plant diseases is that known as the ‘Brown Rot’..of the cabbage... The disease is caused by a bacterium named Pseudomonas campestris. 1968Gloss. Terms Timber Preservation (B.S.I.) 9 Brown rot, a type of decay caused by fungi that attack chiefly cellulose, leaving a brown friable residue of unattacked lignin.
1723J. Nott Cook's & Confectioner's Dict. sig. H h 1 To make *brown Sauce. Toss up Cives, Parsley, Capers and Anchovies in a Sauce-pan, [etc.]. 1854Dickens Hard T. i. xvi. 125 Sweetbread..in a savoury brown sauce was her favourite supper. 1911[see sauce n. 1 a]. 1937Discovery July 212/1 He had the courage to paint the world as he saw it, leaving out the ‘brown sauce’ in which, till then, most pictures had been smothered. 1986Daily Tel. 10 Oct. 19/2 Caramel is an essential part of a cook's palette, used to enhance the colour of a brown sauce, gravy or any other fond de cuisine.
1849Thackeray Pendennis I. xxxi. 306 A pint bottle of pale ale, and some *brown sherry. 1854E. Twisleton Let. 3 Apr. (1928) x. 171 A Golden Sherry, then true Brown Sherry... The Golden was {pstlg}70 the butt, the Brown..{pstlg}100. 1965Guardian 24 Oct. 5 Sherry..these are the main types..fino, amontillado, oloroso, cream brown.
1932Observer 26 June, The concession made to Herr Hitler's *brown shirts. 1939R. C. K. Ensor Who Hitler Is 7 The heavy jack-booted hero afterwards idolized by the Brown-shirts.
1934Times 16 Jan., A *brown-shirted Fascist organization which manifests strong anti-Jewish proclivities.
1840Browning Sordello iv. 395, I Was just a *brown-sleeve brother.
1896F. G. Aflalo Nat. Hist. Australia 172 The *brown snake is found all over Australia and New Guinea. 1931R. L. Ditmars Snakes of World xiv. 192 The Brown Snake, D[emansia] textilis, broadly distributed and usually four to five feet long, is rated as highly dangerous. 1963E. Worrell Reptiles of Australia 139 Brown Snakes are fast-moving and easily aroused. 1966‘J. Hackston’ Father clears Out 163 It was the longest tiger or brown snake ever killed in the district.
1843Portlock Geol. 214 Bitter spar, or *Brown spar, occurs in small but well-defined crystals.
[1836Knickerbocker VIII. 390 His poor remains..in one corner.. —a brown stone at his head and foot.] 1858Spirit of Times 13 Feb. 377/2 A solid substantial *brown-stone front house. 1865‘G. Hamilton’ New Atmosphere 32 The brown-stone friends are shocked and scandalized. 1875tr. Vogel's Chem. Light xvii. 270 Hyper-oxide of manganese also named brownstone. 1909‘O. Henry’ Options 22 Two old-fashioned, brownstone front residences. 1948Time 8 Mar. 25/1 Nightclubs in sorry brownstones. 1957New Yorker 21 Sept. 132/3 The part of Brooklyn we were riding through was..lined with old and ugly brownstones.
1803R. C. Dallas Hist. Maroons I. iv. 91 To prefer pale small beer to *brown stout.
1704Lond. Gaz. No. 4032/4 Her Cargo, consisting chiefly of *Brown Sugar. 1840Barham Ingol. Leg., Wedding D., As ‘best-refined loaf’ to the coarsest ‘brown sugar.’
1782W. Curtis Brown-tail Moth 10 The *Brown-tail Moth..is about two-thirds of the size of the Moth produced from the Silk-worm. 1832J. Rennie Butterfl. & Moths 42 The Brown Tail (Porthesia Auriflua, Stephens) appears in August.
1815Kirby & Spence Entomol. I. vi. 202 The *brown-tailed moth (Bombyx phæorhæa, F.).
a1847C. Mathews Wks. 125 (Bartlett) I love the city as dearly as a *brown thrasher loves the green tree that sheltered its young. 1856Bryant Rivulet i, List the brown thrasher's vernal hymn.
1891R. Wallace Rural Econ. Austral. & N.Z. xxii. 294 Erianthus fulvus, Kunth.—Sugar grass or *brown top. 1902Encycl. Brit. XXXII. 108/2 Some [Queensland] stockholders consider that the ‘Sugar grass’ or ‘Brown Top’ (Pollinia fulva) surpasses them [sc. the ‘Mitchell grasses’] in its quickness of bursting into leaf. 1928R. G. Stapledon Tour Australia & N.Z. viii. 53 New Zealand Chewing's fescue and New Zealand Brown top (Agrostis vulgaris) are at present in great demand in America. 1950N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. Jan. 19/3 The dominant pasture species on this store sheep country are browntop and danthonia.
1902Encycl. Brit. XXXII. 637/1 The excretory organs [of the Sipunculoidea]..serve as channels by which the reproductive cells leave the body, and they are sometimes spoken of as ‘*brown tubes’.
1836Scenes Commerce by Land & S. 150 Common *brown ware..a superior sort is manufactured at Nottingham.
Add:[7.] brown bag chiefly N. Amer., a plain brown paper-bag, esp. one in which a lunch is packed and carried to a work-place, meeting, etc.: freq. attrib., esp. as brown-bag lunch.
1947*Brown bag [implied in brown-bagger below]. 1960N.Y. Times 20 Nov. 2S/4 Wednesday and Thursday are what we call the ‘brown bag’ days. Since the players meet from 10 in the morning to 3.30 in the afternoon, they usually take lunches to practice. 1968U.S. News & World Rep. 2 Sept. 88/3 Suburbanites are launching a ‘brown bag’ protest... Leaders of the drive are calling on the communities to take their lunch to work. 1976Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 6 Mar. 19/5 Brown bag lunchers, backpackers, picnickers and no-frills airline travellers take heed. 1979Honolulu Advertiser 8 Jan. a4/3 Senior Citizen Club..Speakers, brown bag lunch, cards.
brown-bag v. trans. chiefly N. Amer., to carry (one's lunch) in a brown paper-bag; also, to carry (alcoholic drink) concealed in such a bag (to conform to certain U.S. State laws), esp. to a restaurant; also intr. with it.
a1970C. M. Shulz in J. Dutton Peanuts Lunch Bag Cook Bk. 45/1 You had me take my lunch to school in a lunch box... All the other kids were *brown-bagging it! 1971Time 8 Feb. 10/3 The mistrustful Russians brown-bagged their own caviar and vodka. 1977C. McCullough Thorn Birds xi. 249 Luke had brown-bagged two quart bottles of beer from the hotel. 1977Rolling Stone 16 June 34/1 That other American, the devoted churchgoer who publicly votes against liquor but brown-bags it when he can. 1988Maclean's Mag. 6 June 23/2 Dukakis's reputation as a penny pincher who brown-bags his lunches to the State House..has become a..joke.
brown-bagger chiefly N. Amer., one who carries a brown bag, esp. containing food or drink; orig. U.S. Services' slang, a married man.
1947Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang Suppl. 13 *Brown bagger, a married serviceman. 1958Oxf. Mail 14 Aug. 6/6 Important are..the graphic descriptions of ‘brown-baggers’—married naval officers who regard the ship as an office. 1967News & Observer (Raleigh, N. Carolina) 9 Feb. 1/6 The ‘brown-baggers’ got in the first legislative lick..on the explosive liquor issue. 1975Globe & Mail (Toronto) 21 Apr. 27/8 The new kind of airline passengers have given birth to a brand new aviation term in the United States. They've been tagged ‘brown baggers’, in reference to their way of carrying their vittles in brown paper bags when they come aboard. 1986Los Angeles Times 19 June viii. 29/2 Brown-baggers should replace bags daily; never use a soiled or wet bag.
also brown-bagging n. and a.
1966Economist 26 Nov. 921/2 The officially tolerated subterfuge of ‘*brown-bagging’—buying the bottle at a state liquor shop and carrying it in a plain brown wrapper to restaurants. 1975Citizen (Ottawa) 4 Oct. 73/3 The favorite bits for the audience, made up mostly of brown-bagging state employees..was clearly the job description jargon. 1986Boston Globe 28 May 45/1 Brown-bagging is given a new dimension with Eddie Bauer's lunch sacks.
brown bomber Austral. slang [introduced in 1946 as jobs were created for disabled war veterans; the brown uniforms were worn until 1975]: in New South Wales, an officer employed to enforce parking regulations (see quot. 1953); a traffic warden or ‘parking cop’.
1953Sydney Morning Herald 3 Jan. 6/2 The year produced many slang words. Some of them were inherited from previous years but acquired wide usage in the past 12 months... ‘*Brown bombers', Sydney parking police, probably derived from the colour of their uniforms and influenced by the use of ‘bomb’ for an old car. 1968D. Ireland Chantic Bird vi. 61 Next day a brown bomber—a parking cop—gave me a fright. 1983Austral. Women's Weekly Aug. 20/3 Parking inspectors in Victoria are Grey Ghosts, as they may be in NSW, though some people still call them Brown Bombers.
Add:[7.] brownfield(s) orig. U.S., used attrib. and absol. to designate an (urban) area, which is or has formerly been the site of commercial or industrial activity, esp. one now cleared and available for redevelopment; cf. green field(s) s.v. green a. 2 a.
1977Fortune Jan. 110/1 The new facility would be a *brownfield expansion (addition to existing plant), producing about 1.2 million tons of iron. 1984Science 13 July 151/1 The report supports modernization of smokestack industries and urges that those that are relocated be kept in ‘brownfield’ areas where they will do less environmental damage and supply jobs in already industrialized regions. 1990R.I.B.A. Jrnl. Oct. 25/4 A ‘brown-field’ site out of London, in say Leeds or Sheffield or York, could attract development grants, rates deferrals and provide jobs. 1994Buffalo News 23 Oct. (Metro ed.) c-7/3 ‘Brown fields’ redevelopment efforts were boosted by the state last week with the announcement of a new program that will limit liability. Ibid. Redeveloping existing brown fields makes economic and environmental sense.
▸ brown cloud n. a thick cloud or fog of airborne pollution; the phenomenon of such clouds forming.
1977Reno (Nevada) Evening Gaz. 5 May 9/1 The ‘*brown cloud’ of pollution over Reno figured prominently in the discussion..of..auto emission controls. 1993Fort Collins (Colorado) Triangle Rev. 21 Jan. 15 (advt.) A properly tuned car or truck can keep the brown cloud away by reducing emissions as much as 90%. 2002Guardian 12 Aug. i. 3/1 Yesterday a team of international climatologists..said that they had identified the ‘Asian brown cloud’. This 10 million square mile, three kilometre thick, fluctuating haze of man-made pollutants is now spreading across the whole Asian continent and blocking out up to 15% of the sunlight. 2003Wilson Q. Spring 83 Brown cloud is not just a phenomenon of cities; it can span an entire continent or ocean basin.
▸ brown pelican n.compare French pélican brun (Buffon Hist. Naturelle des Oiseaux (1781) I. 37) a marine pelican, Pelicanus occidentalis, with a greyish-brown body and a white head and neck, found off the west coast of North and South America and in the Caribbean and off adjacent coasts.
1780P. Sonnerat Acct. Voy. Spice-islands 19 *Brown Pelican, Pl.53. 1868Harper's Mag. July 264/2 Over certain dark spots,..made dark by millions of sardines and other small fish, the brown pelican is ever seen. 2003Caribbean World Winter 56/2 Brown pelicans, with their two metre plus wingspans, glide for minutes on end with scarcely a wingbeat, between fishing grounds.
▪ II. brown, n.
[The adj. used absol.]
1. a. Brown colour.
1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts 435 The mingling together of black and white colours doth..produce a swart and brown, and neither of both doth appear in the brown. 1850Tennyson In Mem. ci. 3 That beech will gather brown. 1873Black Pr. Thule i. 3 Amid the browns and greens of the heather.
b. Duskiness, gloom.
1729M. Browne Piscat. Eclog. viii. (1773) 111 The scatt'ring brown of night.
c. A pigment of a brown colour.
1549in Rogers Agric. & Prices III. 573/2, 1 lb. Spanish brown. 1611Markham Countr. Content. i. x, A little Capons grease, and broun of Spain, mixt together. 1855J. Edwards Paint. Oil Colours 25 Vandyke Brown (Bituminous Earth.) This is a rich transparent pigment.
2. techn. Brown or unbleached state.
1882Standard 11 Sept. 6/6 Medium and fine bobbin nets in the brown.
3. a. Elliptically, for various things or parts of things of a brown colour: e.g. a brown butterfly, a brown fly used in angling; brown clothing, etc. Also, (a drink of) brown ale (in quot. 1862, brown sherry).
a1300K. Horn 1122 Hure horn heo leide adun, And fulde him of a brun [Gloss. a brown jar]. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. ii. ii. i. i. (1651) 232 The burned and scorched superficies [of roast meat], the brown we call it. 1681J. Chetham Angler's Vade-m. xxxiv. §26 Angle with the smallest Gnats, Browns and Duns. 1712Act 10 Anne in Lond. Gaz. No. 5018/3 Paper called..small ordinary Brown. 1820‘Peter Corcoran’ Fancy 109 Brown, porter.—Heavy Brown, stout. 1823J. Badcock Dom. Amusem. 163 Flour or bread..as seconds, thirds, and browns. 1851Kingsley Let. in Life ix, One pounder I caught to-day on the ‘March brown’. 1860Gosse Rom. Nat. Hist. 4 Here, too, are the butterflies..the tawny ‘browns’ are dancing along the hedge-rows. 1862Dickens Somebody's Luggage in All Yr. Round (Christmas) 5/1 Bottle old East India Brown {pstlg}0 8 0. Ibid. 47/1 He ordered a bottle of Old Brown. 1934T. S. Eliot Rock i. 12 Only if I 'ad a pint o' brown, I'd show you 'ow your money goes. 1959A. Sinclair Breaking of Bumbo iii. 53 Let's go and have a brown in the naafi.
b. slang. A copper coin, a ‘copper’.
1812J. H. Vaux Flash Dict., Browns and whistlers, bad halfpence and farthings. 1842T. Martin in Fraser's Mag. Dec., ‘More browns than guineas goin' vith us any day.’ 1865Look bef. You Leap I. 239 ‘There isn't a respectable boy 'ull give me browns for a sixpence.’
c. A person of brown complexion; a brunette (obs.). In later use, a mulatto.
c1450Merlin xxi. 373 This feire broun is sone to the kynge Belinans. 1862Independent 10 Apr., The jealousy between the blacks and browns, which has done so much mischief in the West Indies, is not fostered by American people of color. 1890H. M. Field Bright Skies 147 In Jamacia..they are distinguished as the whites and blacks and the browns. 1968Listener 31 Oct. 57 53 A white girl found herself the only white in a class of blacks and browns.
4. the brown: lit. the brown-coloured mass of a flock of game-birds; in phr. to fire into the brown (of them): to fire into the midst of a covey instead of singling out a bird; also transf., to fire, or launch a missile, indiscriminately into a mass.
1845J. Mayer Sportsman's Directory (ed. 7) 21 Always aim at one particular bird, not firing at random at the whole covey, or ‘into the brown of them’. 1871Punch 16 Dec. 256/2 Sportsmen, whose sport must mainly consist in ‘firing into the brown’. 1885Ibid. 31 Jan. 53 ‘Pop! Bang! Whose bird?’ That's the French notion of a tag, as the husband looses off ‘into the brown’ of his wife's adorers. 1888Kipling Phantom 'Rickshaw (1889) 87 We three Martinis firing into the brown of the enemy. 1899Daily News 4 May 8/2 The sportsman..not firing into the brown, but taking careful aim at some particular bird. 1955C. S. Forester Good Shepherd 23 Three square miles of sea, an immense target for any torpedo fired ‘into the brown’.
▪ III. brown, v.|braʊn|
[f. brown a.]
1. intr. To become brown.
c1300K. Alis. 3293 Whan note brounith in haselrys. 1859Lever Davenp. Dunn 26 ‘That delicious potato-cake that I see browning..before the fire.’
2. trans. To make brown; to roast brown; to give (by a chemical process) a dull brown lustre to gun-barrels or other polished iron surfaces.
1570Levins Manip. 220 To Broune, obfuscare. 1769Mrs. Raffald Eng. Housekpr. (1778) 133 Take off the skin and brown it. 1833J. Holland Manuf. Metals II. 107 The operation of browning a gun barrel. 1862Thornbury Turner II. 319 The hot Italian sun had parched and browned him.
fig.1798M. Wollstonecraft Posth. Wks. III. ix. 23 To give a freshness to days browned by care.
3. [from brown n. 4.] To fire indiscriminately at (a covey of birds or a mass of men).
1873Sat. Rev. Sept. 310 We seldom did ourselves anything like justice until the coveys were out on the feed towards evening, when we were apt to brown them as they rose in little clouds. 1885Rider Haggard K. Solomon's Mines xiii, Good..began to fire,..industriously ‘browning’ the dense mass before him with a Winchester repeater. 1921Blackw. Mag. Jan. 122/2 He waited till the troop was some hundred and fifty yards away, and then he ‘browned’ it. 1962B. Scott James Asking for Trouble xix. 145 We all shot a little wildly..one guest, a German, browned the beaters.
▪ IV. brown(e
obs. pa. pple. of brew; obs. f. brawn. |