fawn
English edit
Pronunciation edit
- (UK) IPA(key): /fɔːn/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - (US) IPA(key): /fɔn/
- (cot–caught merger) IPA(key): /fɑn/
- Homophone: faun
- Rhymes: -ɔːn
Etymology 1 edit
From Middle English fawne, fowne, foun, from Old French faon, foon, feon,[1] from Vulgar Latin *fētōnem, from Latin fētus (“offspring, young”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁(y)- (“to suckle, nurse”). Displaced native Old English hindċealf (literally “deer calf”). Doublet of fetus.
Noun edit
fawn (plural fawns)
- A young deer.
- Synonym: deerling
- A pale brown colour tinted with yellow, like that of a fawn.
- fawn:
- (obsolete) The young of an animal; a whelp.
- 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “(please specify |book=I to XXXVII)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], (please specify |tome=1 or 2), London: […] Adam Islip, published 1635, →OCLC:
- she [the tigress] rageth upon the shore and the sands, for the losse of her fawnes
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
young deer
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colour
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Adjective edit
fawn (not comparable)
- Of the fawn colour.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
pertaining to the colour
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
Verb edit
fawn (third-person singular simple present fawns, present participle fawning, simple past and past participle fawned)
- (intransitive) To give birth to a fawn.
Etymology 2 edit
From Middle English fawnen, from Old English fagnian, alternative form of fæġnian (“to celebrate”), whence Middle English fainen, English fain.[2] Cognate with Old Norse fagna.[3] See also fain.
Verb edit
fawn (third-person singular simple present fawns, present participle fawning, simple past and past participle fawned)
- (intransitive) To exhibit affection or attempt to please.
- (intransitive) To seek favour by flattery and obsequious behaviour (with on or upon).
- 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
- You showed your teeth like apes, and fawned like hounds.
- 1671, John Milton, Paradise Regained, book 1:
- Thou with trembling fear, / Or like a fawning parasite, obeyest.
- 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 23, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:
- courtiers who fawn on a master while they betray him
- 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
- That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery, seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired.
- (intransitive, of a dog) To show devotion or submissiveness by wagging its tail, nuzzling, licking, etc.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
to exhibit affection
to seek favour by flattery
to wag tail
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Noun edit
fawn (plural fawns)
See also edit
References edit
- ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “fawn”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.
- ^ “fawn”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
Middle English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
Descendants edit
- English: faun
References edit
- “faun, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
Welsh edit
Pronunciation edit
Verb edit
fawn
- Soft mutation of bawn.
Noun edit
fawn
- Soft mutation of mawn.
Mutation edit
| Welsh mutation | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| radical | soft | nasal | aspirate |
| bawn | fawn | mawn | unchanged |
| Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs. | |||