a. (sb.) [WHITY a. b.]
1. Of a brown color inclining to white; whitish brown; pale brown: most commonly of paper. As sb. (properly two words) a whitish brown; ellipt. = whity-brown paper.
1777. Thicknesse, Journ. France (1789), II. 104. The frequent marriages of these men … with white women, and the succession of black, brown, and whity brown people, produced by these very unnatural … alliances.
1786. Mme. D’Arblay, Diary, 2 Aug. She seized a piece of whity-brown paper.
1815. Zeluca, II. 83. Detestable Creature, with her whity-brown hair.
1816. Colman, Broad Grins, Mr. Champernoune, vii. A paper coarse in grain; For England’s monarchs then were fain To handle whitey-brown.
1862. Thackeray, Philip, xix. Whitey-brown bread.
1876. Hardy, Ethelberta (1890), 17. A little green leather sheath, worn at the edges to whitey-brown.
2. fig. Neither one thing nor another, neutral, undecided, half-and-half.
1892. Spectator, 19 March, 391/1. Let us, he cries, have no whitey-brown men.
1895. Westm. Gaz., 28 Dec., 8/2. The whitey-brown men, a political tribe of undecided colour,… who side with any party.
