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Added 9 October 2026

dun

/dʌn/ noun

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about dun at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

Horse of a dull brownish grey color.
A color or pigment varying around a light grey-brown color.
she wore dun

verb

Treat cruelly.
The children tormented the stuttering teacher
Persistently ask for overdue payment.
The grocer dunned his customers every day by telephone
Cure by salting.
dun codfish

adjective

Of a dull greyish brown to brownish grey color.
the dun and dreary prairie

Origin

From Middle English dun, donn, dunne, from Old English dunn (“dun, dingy brown, bark-colored, brownish black”), from Proto-West Germanic *duʀn, from Proto-Germanic *duznaz, *dusnaz (“brown, yellow”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂- (“to smoke, raise dust”). Cognate with Old Saxon dun (“brown, dark”), Old High German tusin (“ash-gray, dull brown, pale yellow, dark”), Old Norse dunna (“female mallard; duck”). Alternative etymology derives the Old English word from Brythonic (compare Middle Welsh dwnn (“dark (red)”)), from Proto-Celtic *dusnos (compare Old Irish donn and Scottish Gaelic donn (“brown”)), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰews- (compare Old Saxon dosan (“chestnut brown”)).

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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