auburn

English

Etymology

Early Modern English auburn (“brown, reddish brown”) from Middle English aubourne, abron, abroune, abrune (“light brown, yellowish brown, blond”), alteration (due to conflation with Middle English brun (“brown”)) of earlier auborne (“yellowish-white, flaxen”) from Old French auborne, alborne (“blond, flaxen, off-white”) from Medieval Latin alburnus (“whitish”), from Latin albus (“white”). More at albino, brown.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɔ.bɚn/
• (cot-caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈɑ.bɚn/
• Rhymes: -ɔːbə(ɹ)n

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

auburn (countable and uncountable, plural auburns)

1. A dark reddish-brown colour, often used to describe hair colour.

   auburn:  

Translations

Adjective

auburn (comparative more auburn, superlative most auburn)

1. Of a reddish-brown colour.

   Synonym: cupreous

   • 1891, Thomas Hardy, chapter XXI, in Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented , volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: James R Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., , →OCLC:

     All were watching somebody in the garden with deep interest, their three faces close together: a jovial and round one, a pale one with dark hair, and a fair one whose tresses were auburn. “Don’t push! You can see as well as I,” said Retty, the auburn-haired and youngest girl, without removing her eyes from the window.

   • 1915, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter XXXIII, in Of Human Bondage, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC:

     […] ; nor was Miss Wilkinson the ideal: he had often pictured to himself the great violet eyes and the alabaster skin of some lovely girl, and he had thought of himself burying his face in the rippling masses of her auburn hair.

   • 1982, “I Ran (So Far Away)”, performed by A Flock of Seagulls:

     I never thought I'd meet a girl like you / Meet a girl like you / With auburn hair and tawny eyes

Translations

See also

• Auburn
• redheaded
• titian
• Appendix:Colors
• Auburn (color) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia