embrown

English

WOTD – 17 August 2022

Etymology

PIE word
*h₁én

A person’s legs being embrowned (sense 1) by the sun.

From em- (variant of en- (prefix with the sense ‘to bring to a certain condition or state’)) +‎ brown (“having a brown colour”, adjective).

cognates

• French embrunir
• Italian imbrunire

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪmˈbɹaʊn/, /ɛm-/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /əmˈbɹaʊn/, /ɛm-/
• Rhymes: -aʊn
• Hyphenation: em‧brown

Verb

embrown (third-person singular simple present embrowns, present participle embrowning, simple past and past participle embrowned) (chiefly literary and poetic, also figuratively)

1. (transitive)
   1. To make (something) brown; to brown.

      Synonym: brownify

      • a. 1701 (date written), John Dryden, “Epistle the Fourteenth. To Sir Godfrey Kneller, Principal Painter to His Majesty.”, in The Miscellaneous Works of John Dryden, […], volume II, London: […] J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson, […], published 1760, →OCLC, page 201:

        For time ſhall with his ready pencil ſtand; / Retouch your figures with his ripening hand; / Mellow your colors, and imbrown the teint; / Add every grace, which time alone can grant; / To future ages ſhall your fame convey, / And give more beauties than he takes away.

      • 1799, George Davies Harley, “The Reproof”, in Ballad Stories, Sonnets, &c, volume I, Bath, Somerset: […] R. Cruttwell; and sold by C[harles] Dilly, […], and W[illiam] Miller, […], →OCLC, stanza 2, page 22:

        For blight of the season embrowneth the bloom, / And time winnows falshood, like chaff, as it flies: […]

      • 1812, Lord Byron, “Canto I”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. A Romaunt, London: Printed for John Murray, […]; William Blackwood, Edinburgh; and John Cumming, Dublin; by Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, stanza XIX, page 17:

        The mountain-moss by scorching skies imbrown'd, […]

      • 1825, “Chapter XXXIX. Intitled, The Troops; Revealed at Mecca.”, in George Sale, transl., The Koran, Commonly Called the Alcoran of Mohammed, Translated into English Immediately from the Original Arabic; […], new edition, volume II, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Thomas Tegg, […], footnote ‡, page 327:

        The heat embrowneth the harvests. They fall under the edge of the sickle.

        An English translation of a passage from Claude-Étienne Savary’s French translation of the Quran (1782–1783).

      • 1825 June 22, [Walter Scott], chapter II, in Tales of the Crusaders. […], volume III (The Talisman), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 31:

        His features were small, well formed, and delicate, though deeply embrowned by the eastern sun, and terminated by a flowing and curled black beard, which seemed trimmed with peculiar care.

      • 1835, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], “The Knight of Provençe, and His Proposal”, in Rienzi, the Last of the Tribunes. […], volume I, London: Saunders and Otley, […], →OCLC, book II (The Revolution), page 184:

        His fair hair waved long and freely over a white and unwrinkled forehead: the life of a camp and the suns of Italy had but little embrowned his clear and healthful complexion, which retained much of the bloom of youth.

      • 1863 November – 1864 February, [Elizabeth] Gaskell, “Cousin Phillis. Part II.”, in Cousin Phillis. And Other Tales. […], illustrated edition, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published 1865, →OCLC, page 66:

        He was looking quite a different man to what I had left him; embrowned, sparkles in his eyes, so languid before.

   2. To make (something) dark or dusky (“having a rather dark shade of colour”); to brown, to darken.
      • 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 242–246:

        […] Nature boon / Powrd forth profuſe on Hill and Dale and Plaine, / Both where the morning Sun firſt warmly ſmote / The open field, and where the unpierc't ſhade / Imbround the noontide Bowrs: […]

      • 1743, [Edward Young], “Night the Fifth. The Relapse. […]”, in The Complaint. Or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality. Night the Fifth, London: […] R[obert] Dodsley […], →OCLC, page 11:

        And thy dark Pencil, Midnight! darker ſtill / In Melancholy dipt, embrovvns the vvhole.

      • 1813, Walter Scott, “Canto Third”, in Rokeby; a Poem, Edinburgh: […] [F]or John Ballantyne and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown; by James Ballantyne and Co., […], →OCLC, stanza IX, page 115:

        No deeper clouds the grove embrowned, / No nether thunders shook the ground; […]

2. (intransitive)
   1. To become or make brown; to brown.

      Synonym: brownify

      • 1725, Homer, “Book XIV”, in [Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume III, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC, page 238, lines 91–94:

        [O]n the board diſplay'd / The ready meal before Ulyſſes lay'd. / (VVith flour imbrovvn'd) next mingled vvine yet nevv, / And luſcious as the Bee's nectareous devv: […]

      • 1867, Dante Alighieri, “Canto IV”, in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, transl., The Divine Comedy, volume II (Purgatorio), Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 21, lines 19–21:

        A greater opening ofttimes hedges up / With but a little forkful of his thorns / The villager, what time the grape imbrowns, […]

   2. To become or make dark or dusky; to brown, to darken.
      • 1738, William Warburton, “Section IV”, in The Divine Legation of Moses […], volume I, London: […] Fletcher Gyles, […], →OCLC, book III, page 405:

        Under theſe Auſpices, Jamblicus compoſed the Book juſt before mentioned, Of the Mytſeries; meaning the profound and recondite Doctrines of the Egyptian Philoſophy: VVhich, at Bottom, is nothing elſe but the genuine Greek Philoſophy, imbrovvned vvith the Fanaticiſm of Eatſern Cant.

      • 1814, Dante Alighieri, “Canto II”, in H[enry] F[rancis] Cary, transl., The Vision; or, Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, of Dante Alighieri. […], volume I (Hell), London: […] [J. Barfield] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, page 5, lines 1–3:

        Now was the day departing, and the air, / Imbrown'd with shadows, from their toils releas'd / All animals on earth; […]

Conjugation

Conjugation of embrown

infinitive	(to) embrown
	present tense	past tense
1st-person singular	embrown	embrowned
2nd-person singular	embrown, embrownest†	embrowned, embrownedst†
3rd-person singular	embrowns, embrowneth†	embrowned
plural	embrown
subjunctive	embrown	embrowned
imperative	embrown	—
participles	embrowning	embrowned

^†Archaic or obsolete.

Alternative forms

• imbrown (archaic)

Derived terms

• embrowned (adjective)
• embrowning (adjective, noun)
• embrownment (rare)

Related terms

• brown
• brownify
• browning (noun)
• brownish

Translations

to make (something) brown — see also brown

• Estonian: pruunistama
• Finnish: ruskistaa (fi)
• French: embrunir (fr)
• Italian: imbrunìre (it)
• Polish: pociemniać

to become or make brown — see also brown

• Finnish: ruskistua
• French: embrunir (fr)
• Italian: imbrunìre (it)

to make (something) dark or dusky; to become or make dark or dusky — see darken

Anagrams

• Mewborn, browmen