dun
EnglishEdit
Etymology 1Edit
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”), Old Norse dunna (“female mallard; duck”).
Alternative etymology derives the Old English word from Late Brythonic (compare Old Welsh dwnn 'dark (red)'), from Proto-Celtic *dusno (compare Old Irish donn), from Proto-Indo-European *dwos (compare Old Saxon dosan 'chestnut brown'). More at dusk.
PronunciationEdit
- Rhymes: -ʌn
NounEdit
dun (countable and uncountable, plural duns)
- (uncountable) A brownish grey colour.
-
dun colour:
-
TranslationsEdit
colour
|
AdjectiveEdit
dun (not comparable)
- Of a brownish grey colour.
- Pierpont
- Summer's dun cloud comes thundering up.
- Keble
- Chill and dun / Falls on the moor the brief November day.
- Pierpont
TranslationsEdit
of a brownish grey colour
|
Derived termsEdit
See alsoEdit
Etymology 2Edit
Unknown; perhaps a variant of din.
NounEdit
dun (plural duns)
- (countable) A collector of debts.
- Arbuthnot
- to be pulled by the sleeve by some rascally dun
- 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.
- Arbuthnot
- An urgent request or demand of payment.
- He sent his debtor a dun.
TranslationsEdit
VerbEdit
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.
TranslationsEdit
to ask for payment
Derived termsEdit
Etymology 3Edit
NounEdit
dun (plural duns)
SynonymsEdit
TranslationsEdit
immature mayfly
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Etymology 4Edit
See done.
VerbEdit
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 5Edit
See don’t.
ContractionEdit
dun
- Eye dialect spelling of don't.
Etymology 6Edit
VerbEdit
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.
Etymology 7Edit
See dune.
NounEdit
dun (plural duns)
Etymology 8Edit
Imitative.
InterjectionEdit
dun
- (humorous) Imitating suspenseful music.
- Carrie Tucker, I Love Geeks
- Has he allowed the power and the repercussions of the Death Note to influence his entire life? How would you deal with that power? (Dun, dun, DUN! Insert dramatic music here.)
- Carrie Tucker, I Love Geeks
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.
AnagramsEdit
DanishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Old Norse dúnn (“down”).
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
dun n (singular definite dunet, plural indefinite dun)
- down (soft, immature feathers)
InflectionEdit
Inflection of dun
See alsoEdit
Dun on the Danish Wikipedia.da.Wikipedia
DutchEdit
PronunciationEdit
-
Audio (file)
EtymologyEdit
From Middle Dutch dunne, from Old Dutch *thunni, from Proto-Germanic *þunnuz. Cognates with English thin (Compare West-Flemish thinne).
AdjectiveEdit
dun (comparative dunner, superlative dunst)
InflectionEdit
| Inflection of dun | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| uninflected | dun | |||
| inflected | dunne | |||
| comparative | dunner | |||
| positive | comparative | superlative | ||
| predicative/adverbial | dun | dunner | het dunst het dunste |
|
| indefinite | m./f. sing. | dunne | dunnere | dunste |
| n. sing. | dun | dunner | dunste | |
| plural | dunne | dunnere | dunste | |
| definite | dunne | dunnere | dunste | |
| partitive | duns | dunners | — | |
AntonymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
VerbEdit
dun
GalicianEdit
EtymologyEdit
From de (“of”) + un (“masculine singular indefinite article”)
ContractionEdit
dun m
See alsoEdit
KiputEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Proto-North Sarawak *daqun, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *dahun (compare Malay daun).
NounEdit
dun
LojbanEdit
MandarinEdit
RomanizationEdit
dun
- Nonstandard spelling of dūn.
- Nonstandard spelling of dún.
- Nonstandard spelling of dǔn.
- Nonstandard spelling of dùn.
Usage notesEdit
- English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.
Old EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
Apparently from a Celtic source; compare Old Irish dun (“hill, hill-fort”), Welsh din.
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
dūn f
DeclensionEdit
Declension of dun (strong ō-stem)
Derived termsEdit
DescendantsEdit
- English: down
SwedishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Old Norse dúnn (“down”).
NounEdit
dun n
- down, what grows on young birds
DeclensionEdit
Declension of dun
Related termsEdit
ReferencesEdit
- dun in Svenska Akademiens Ordlista över svenska språket (13th ed., online)