Tawny is a warm golden brown. Tawny fur, a tawny owl, tawny port.
It is the colour of dry grass, lion fur and aged port, and it is warmer than plain brown and duller than gold. The tawny owl is Britain's commonest owl and the one that makes the twit-twoo — which is actually two birds calling to each other. Tawny port is aged in wood until it browns. Note that the word comes from the same root as tan.
1adjectivetawnyOf a warm golden brown colour.
“The lion's tawny coat blended in with the dry grass of the savannah.”
tawny is a colour.
Middle English tauni comes from Anglo-Norman, from a word for tanning. Tan comes from the same root, and the colour is the colour of tanned hide.
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)dʰnwos
Proto-Celtic
*tannos — green oak
Old French
tané
Anglo-Norman
taune
Middle English
tauni
English, today
tawny
Built from
The adjective is derived from Middle English tauni, tawne (“having a brownish-orange colour”)taunde, taunei, tauneʒ, tauny, tawny, (chiefly Northern England, Scotland) tanei, tani, tanne, tannee, tanny, tannye, tany, thanne, from Anglo-Norman taune, tawné, and Old French tané, tanné, tanney (“of a tan colour”), an adjective use of the past participle of taner (“to turn hide into leather, tan”), from tan (“pulped oak bark used to tan leather, tanbark”), ultimately from Proto-Celtic tannos (“green oak”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European (s)dʰnwos, (s)dʰonu (“fir”). The -aw- spelling (also -au- in Middle English) seems to have been due to the pronunciation of Old French tané. The verb is derived from the adjective.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA