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russet

UK/ˈɹʌsɪt/US/ˈɹʌsɪt/
adjectiveC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,335 of 15,258leans written

Russet means reddish brown. Russet leaves, a russet coat, russet and gold.

It is an autumn word and a slightly literary one. A russet is also an apple with a rough brown skin, which is what the colour is named after — or the other way about. The word first named a coarse reddish-brown wool cloth worn by country people, which is where it starts.

Definitions of russet

  1. 1adjectiverussetReddish brown.C1

    “The hills turned russet and gold as autumn arrived.”

russet is a colour.

Where it comes from

Anglo-Norman russet means reddish-brown, and named a coarse wool cloth. It comes from a root meaning red.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *h₁rewdʰ-

  2. Middle French

    rosset

  3. Anglo-Norman

    russet

  4. Middle English

    russet

  5. English, today

    russet

Built from

  • rousset · Middle French — reddish, reddish-brown; a rough wool cloth
  • rus · Middle French — to rouse

From Middle English russet, from Anglo-Norman russet, rossat, roset, and Middle French rosset, rousset (“reddish, reddish-brown; a rough wool cloth”), from Middle French rous, rus (“to rouse”) + -et; compare Latin rossetum, russetum, russeta (“rough wool cloth”), Latin russus (“red”) (from Proto-Indo-European h₁rewdʰ- (“red”)), Occitan rosseta (“rough wool cloth”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

russet in the wild

  • The Egremont Russet is a cultivar of dessert apple, of the russet type.

    Egremont Russet

  • A russet potato is a type of potato that is large, with dark brown skin and few eyes.

    Russet potato

  • A russet type, its flesh is white, dry, and mealy, and it is good for baking, mashing, and french fries (chips).

    Russet Burbank

  • Russet apples are varieties and cultivars of apples that regularly exhibit russeting, partial or complete coverage with rough patches of greenish-brown to yellowish-brown colour.

    Russet apple

  • While russeting is generally an undesirable trait in modern cultivars, russet varieties are often seen as more traditional, and associated with aromatic flavours.

    Russet apple

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.