a. and sb. Forms: α. 4–7 tauny, 5– tawny; also 4 tawne, (4–5 taunde), (6 tawneye, 6–7 -ie, 6–9 -ey). β. (chiefly north. and Sc.) 5 tannye, tannee, 5–6 tanne, tany, 5–7 tanny; see also TENNE. [ME. tauny, tawne, a. AF. taune, OF. tané (12–13th c. in Godef., Compl.), later tanné, ‘foncé comme le tan,’ f. tan, TAN sb.1 The au, aw appears to have arisen from the OF. pronunciation, in which the a before m was nasalized, tãne: cf. pawn, aunt, † demaund, † Fraunce.]
Name of a composite color, consisting of brown with a preponderance of yellow or orange; but formerly applied also to other shades of brown. A. as adj. Having, or being of, this color.
α. 1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. V. 196. Þanne cam coueytise … in a tauny tabarde of twelue wynter age.
1395. E. E. Wills (1882), 5. I deuyse to … my doughter at tawne bed of silk.
1487. in Surrey Archæol. Soc. Collect. (1865), III. 163. I bequeathe my tawny velvet gowns to be made a chesible thereof.
1538. Test. Ebor. (Surtees), VI. 85. My tawney chamlett dublett.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, I. xxi. 32. Peruincle … The floure most commonly is blew, & sometimes white, & tawnie, but very seldome.
1599. Davies, Immort. Soul, clxxxviii. As the World’s Sun … Makes the Moor black, the European white; Th’ American tawny.
1601. B. Jonson, Poetaster, III. iv. We must haue you turne fiddler againe,… get a base violin at your backe, and marche in a tawnie coate.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., IV. 162. The other Turkes which are borne in Asia major and Ægypt … are of a greater stature, tauny.
1706. Phillips (ed. 6), Tawny, that is of a tanned, or yellowish, or dusky Colour.
1791. Cowper, Iliad, X. 211. A lion’s tawny skin Around him wrapp’d.
1844. Dickens, Mart. Chuz., xii. That port, being a light and tawny wine.
1856. Delamer, Fl. Gard. (1861), 60. Hemerocallis flava.—Day Lily; a plant with yellow or tawny flowers.
1904. Blackw. Mag., July, 2. The patched old tawny sails.
β. c. 1425. trans. Arderne’s Surgery (E.E.T.S.), 27. Puluer of gallez and psidie and puluer tanny.
1564. Reg. Privy Council Scot., I. 308. Sex pece of broun and tanne clayth.
a. 1585. Polwart, Flyting w. Montgomerie, 736. Tanny cheeks, I think thou speiks with thy breeks.
1638. Junius, Paint. Ancients, 270. They resemble the similitude of a tanie or a white man.
1652. J. Wright, trans. Camus’ Nat. Paradox, 362. Her complexion (which is somewhat tanny by beeing much exposed to the Sun).
B. as sb. 1. Tawny color. In Her. = TENNE.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 4335. Nouthire to toly ne to taunde transmitte we na vebbis, To vermylion ne violett ne variant littis.
c. 1410. Master of Game (MS. Digby 182), xiii. Þe best hue of rennynge houndes whiche be goode, is cleped broune tanne.
1493. Mem. Ripon (Surtees), III. 164. Pro xij virgis panni coloris de tawne pro vestura choristarum.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XXIV. iv. 178. Without forth of a light tawnie or yellowish red.
1610. Guillim, Heraldry, I. iii. (1660), 20. Tawny (saith Leigh) is a Colour of Worship, and of some Heralds it is called Bruske.
1641. G. Sandys, Paraphr. Song Sol., I. i. This Tawney from the Sun I took.
1756. C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, I. 103. The bright red is reduced to somewhat of a tawny.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xxiv. I ain’t particular about a shade or so of tawny.
† 2. Cloth of a tawny color. [Cf. OF. tanné.]
α. 1416. in Somerset Med. Wills (1901), 75. j joup de Taune furr[ata] cum nigro.
1462. Mann. & Househ. Exp. (Roxb.), 149. Ffor a ȝerd and di. Off tawny, vj.s. vj.d.
1566. in Hakluyt, Voy. (1598), I. 358. Some blacks for womens garments, with some Orenge colours and tawneis.
1572. in Feuillerat, Revels Q. Eliz. (1908), 187. Of Satten Tawnie twelve yardes.
1587. Fleming, Contn. Holinshed, III. 1338/1. Clothed in white, yellow, & orange tawnie.
β. 1462. Paston Lett., II. 103. Your son wolle haue to hys jakets murry and tany.
1494, 1502. Rowane tanne [see ROWAN3].
1497. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., I. 343. For iij elne and ane half of Rowane tannee. Ibid. (1501), II. 49. iiij elne Franch tanne.
† b. pl. Garments made of this cloth. Obs.
c. 1800. R. Cumberland, John de Lancaster (1809), III. 116. The … livery-men brushing up their orange tawnies.
3. A brown-skinned person; = TAWNY-MOOR. arch.
1660. F. Brooke, trans. Le Blanc’s Trav., 347. There are Tawnies amongst them, they weare in their eares rings of gold and silver.
1681. Lond. Gaz., No. 1672/4. Run away … a Tall slender Indian Tawney.
1751. Franklin, Observ., Wks. 1887, II. 234. In America, where we have so fair an opportunity, by excluding all blacks and tawnys, of increasing the lovely white and red.
1850. Smedley, Frank Fairlegh, xxx. Rajah somebody or other … on his elephant, attended by a train of tawnies.
† 4. A sweet beverage, so called from its color.
β. c. 1430. Two Cookery-bks., 26. Take almaunde Mylke, & Sugre, an powdere Gyngere, & of Galyngale, & of Canelle, and Rede Wine, & boyl y-fere: & þat is gode tannye.
5. A local name for the common bullfinch, from the coloring of the female.
1847–78. Halliwell, Tawny, a bullfinch. Somerset.
1885. Swainson, Provinc. Names Birds, 67. The same parts in the female are reddish brown; hence Tawny (Somerset).
C. Combinations and special collocations. a. Parasynthetic, etc., as tawny-colored, -faced, -haired, -skinned, -tanned, -visaged, -whiskered.
1572. in Hakluyt, Voy. (1600), III. 465. The people of the country are of a good stature, tawny coloured, broad faced, flat nosed.
a. 1618. Sylvester, Spectacles, x. When the Leaves in Autumn wither With a tawny-tanned Face.
1687. Lond. Gaz., No. 2298/3. A lawny visaged Man.
1740. Pineda, Span. Dict., s.v. Denostar, A tawny fac’d Woman dress’d up, reviles the fair one.
1839. Bailey, Festus, v. (1852), 65. Red, black or white, olive, or tawny-skinned.
1859. Geo. Eliot, A. Bede, v. Some tawny-whiskered, brown-locked, clear-complexioned young Englishman.
1862. Burton, Bk.-Hunter, I. 18. He was not a black-letter man … or a tawny-moroccoite [collector of books bound in tawny morocco].
b. With other names of color, expressing a modification by tawny, as tawny-brown, etc.
1502. Privy Purse Exp. Eliz. of York (1830), 9. iiij yerdes … of sarcenet of tawny grene.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 121. The people were black, or rather of a tawny dark brown.
1751. Affect. Narr. of Wager, 97 Their Colour a Tawney Olive.
1812. Sir H. Davy, Chem. Philos., 280. It … becomes of a tawney yellow colour.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 619. For … tawny-gray,… the stuff must receive a previous blue ground by dipping it in the indigo vat.
1905. Westm. Gaz., 4 March, 2/3. I looked across the desert, tawny-gold beneath the pitiless sun.
c. In special collocations, esp. in names of particular species of animals of a tawny color, or plants with tawny flowers, as tawny bunting, monkey, owl, thrush, vulture; tawny day-lily, sedge; also in collectors’ names of moths, as tawny pinion, tawny wave, etc.; tawny emperor, collectors’ name for Apatura herse, a large butterfly (cf. EMPEROR 4); also † tawny-coat, an ecclesiastical apparitor, from the color of his livery.
1766. Pennant, Zool., I. 112. *Tawny Bunting.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., I. iii. 56. Out *Tawney-Coates, out Scarlet Hypocrite.
1634. Heywood, Mayden-head Lost, I. Wks. 1874, IV. 114. Though I was neuer Tawny-coate, I haue playd the summoners part.
1768. Pennant, Zool., I. 158. The *Tawny Owl…. The color of this kind is sufficient to distinguish it from every other.
1859. Miss Pratt, Brit. Grasses, 35. C[arex] fulva (*Tawny Sedge).
1783. Latham, Synopsis, III. 28. *Tawny Thrush, Arct. Zool. … Head, back, and wing coverts tawny.
1891. Cent. Dict., s.v., Tawny thrush, the veery, or Wilson’s thrush, Turdus fuscescens, one of the four song-thrushes which are common in eastern parts of North America.
1781. Latham, Synopsis Birds, I. 19. *Tawny Vulture…. Inhabits Falkland Islands.
Hence † Tawny v. trans., to make tawny; to tan. Obs. rare.
1602. Breton, Mother’s Blessing (Grosart), 9/1. The Sunne so soone, the painted face will tawny.
1613. Heywood, Brazen Age, II. ii. He smels all smoake, and with his nasty sweate Tawnies my skinne.
