bruin - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle Dutch bruun (“brown”) via William Caxton's 1485 translation of a Dutch version of the legend of Reynard the Fox. Bruin is the bear, named for his brown color. Doublet of brown.

bruin (plural bruins)

  1. A folk name for a bear, especially the brown bear, Ursus arctos.
    • 1989, Elias Lönnrot, translated by Keith Bosley, The Kalevala, section XVII:
      The mother sought the one gone / astray, for the lost she longs: / she ran great swamps as a wolf / trod the wilds as a bruin / waters as an otter roamed […].

From Dutch bruin.

bruin (attributive **bruin or (of people alternatively) bruine, comparative bruiner, superlative bruinste)

  1. brown
  2. coloured, of mixed-race and/or Southeast Asian stock

From Middle Dutch bruun, from Old Dutch *brūn, from Proto-West Germanic *brūn, from Proto-Germanic *brūnaz.

bruin (comparative bruiner, superlative bruinst)

  1. brown
Declension of bruin
uninflected bruin
inflected bruine
comparative bruiner
positive comparative superlative
predicative/adverbial bruin bruiner het bruinsthet bruinste
indefinite m./f. sing. bruine bruinere bruinste
n. sing. bruin bruiner bruinste
plural bruine bruinere bruinste
definite bruine bruinere bruinste
partitive bruins bruiners

From the adjective bruin.

bruin n (plural bruinen, diminutive bruintje n)

  1. the color brown
    Het bruin van de stam contrasteerde fel met het groen van de bladeren.
    The brown color of the trunk contrasted sharply with the green color of the leaves.

bruin c (uncountable, no diminutive)

  1. (slang) heroin
    Mijn god, zit ie aan de bruin? ― My god, is he on heroin?

The expression aan de bruin zijn is used for the addiction to heroin only, not for individual shots.

Colors in Dutch · kleuren (layout · text)

wit grijs zwart
rood; karmijnrood oranje; bruin geel; roomwit
groengeel/limoengroen groen
blauwgroen/cyaan; groenblauw/petrolblauw azuurblauw blauw
violet; indigo magenta; paars roze

From Dutch bruin.

bruin

  1. brown