dun
English
Etymology 1
From Middle English dun, dunne, from Old English dunn (“dun, dingy brown, bark-colored, brownish black”), from Proto-Germanic *dusnaz (“brown, yellow”), from Proto-Indo-European *dhūw- (“to smoke, raise dust”). Cognate with Old Saxon dun (“brown, dark”), Old High German tusin (“ash-gray, dull brown, pale yellow, dark”).
Alternative etymology derives the Old English word from Late Brythonic (cf. Old Welsh dwnn 'dark (red)'), from Proto-Celtic *dusno (cf. Old Irish donn), from Proto-Indo-European *dwos (cf. Old Saxon dosan 'chestnut brown'). More at dusk.
Pronunciation
- Rhymes: -ʌn
Noun
dun (countable and uncountable; plural duns)
- (uncountable) A brownish grey colour.
-
dun colour:
-
Translations
Adjective
dun (not comparable)
- Of a brownish grey colour.
Translations
Derived terms
See also
Etymology 2
Unknown; perhaps a variant of din.
Noun
dun (plural duns)
- (countable) A collector of debts.
- 1933, George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London, Ch. 18:
- Melancholy duns came looking for him at all hours.
- 1970, John Glassco, Memoirs of Montparnasse, New York 2007, p. 102:
- ‘Frank's worried about duns,’ she said as the butler went away.
- 1933, George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London, Ch. 18:
Translations
Verb
dun (third-person singular simple present duns, present participle dunning, simple past and past participle dunned)
- (transitive) To ask or beset a debtor for payment.
- Jonathan Swift
- Hath she sent so soon to dun?
- 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society 1973, p. 577:
- Of all he had received from Lady Bellaston, not above five guineas remained and that very morning he had been dunned by a tradesman for twice that sum.
- 1940, Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, Penguin 2010, p. 107:
- Rich bitches who had to be dunned for their milk bills would pay him right now.
- Jonathan Swift
- (transitive) To harass by continually repeating e.g. a request.
Translations
Derived terms
- dun letter
Etymology 3
Pronunciation
Noun
dun (plural duns)
- A valley in the Himalayan foothills, e.g. Dehra Dun.
Etymology 4
Noun
dun (plural duns)
Translations
Etymology 5
See done.
Verb
dun
- (informal) Eye dialect spelling of done: simple past tense and past participle of do
- He dun it before and he dun it again.
- Now, ya dun it!
Etymology 6
See don’t.
Contraction
dun
- Eye dialect spelling of don't.
Etymology 7
Verb
dun (third-person singular simple present duns, present participle dunning, simple past and past participle dunned)
- (transitive) To cure, as codfish, by laying them, after salting, in a pile in a dark place, covered with saltgrass or a similar substance.
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
Anagrams
Danish
Etymology
From Old Norse dúnn (“down”).
Pronunciation
- IPA: /duːn/, [d̥uːˀn]
Noun
dun n (singular definite dunet, plural indefinite dun)
- down (soft, immature feathers)
Inflection
| neuter gender | Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| indefinite | definite | indefinite | definite | |
| nominative, dative and accusative | dun | dunet | dun | dunene |
| genitive | duns | dunets | duns | dunenes |
See also
Dun on the Danish Wikipedia.da.Wikipedia
Dutch
Etymology
From Old Dutch *thunni, from Proto-Germanic *þunnuz.
Adjective
dun (comparative dunner, superlative dunst)
Declension
| positive | comparative | superlative | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| attributive | predicative/adverbial | ||||
| predicative/adverbial | dun | dunner | |||
| neuter singular |
indefinite | dun | dunner | ||
| definite | dunne | dunnere | dunste | dunst, dunste | |
| common singular | dunne | dunnere | dunste | dunste | |
| plural | dunne | dunnere | dunste | dunste | |
| partitive | duns | dunners | |||
Antonyms
Derived terms
Verb
dun
Galician
Etymology
From contraction of preposition de (“of”) + masculine article un (“a, one”)
Contraction
dun m (feminine dunha, masculine plural duns, feminine plural dunhas)
Kiput
Etymology
From Proto-North Sarawak *daqun, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *dahun (compare Malay daun).
Noun
dun
Mandarin
Romanization
dun
- Nonstandard spelling of dūn.
- Nonstandard spelling of dún.
- Nonstandard spelling of dǔn.
- Nonstandard spelling of dùn.
Usage notes
English transcriptions of Chinese speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Chinese language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.
Old English
Etymology
Apparently from a Celtic source; compare Old Irish dun (“hill, hill-fort”), Welsh din.
Pronunciation
- IPA: /duːn/
Noun
dūn f
Declension
Derived terms
- ofdune
Descendants
- English: down
Swedish
Noun
dun n
- down, what grows on young birds
Declension
Related terms
|
|
|
References
- dun in Svenska Akademiens Ordlista över svenska språket (13th ed., online)