Embrown

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ɪmˈbɹaʊn/

Definitions

1. To cause something to become brown or acquire a brownish hue
2. To impart a brown color to an object or surface
3. To dye or color something so that it appears brown

Etymology: Embrown is a straightforward formation: the prefix em- (a variant of en-, which turns a word into a verb meaning "to bring into a certain condition or state") joined to brown. So the verb means, quite literally, to put something into a brown state. The adjective brown has been part of English since Old English, and the prefix is what turns it into an action. The most striking evidence for the verb's history is the sense the Oxford English Dictionary records for it: a person's legs being embrowned by the sun. That image, of a traveller's shins baked dark on a long road, shows the word in its most concrete use, describing a change in colour brought about by weather and light rather than by paint or dye. The word has close cousins in other languages: French has "embrunir" and Italian has "imbrunire", both built on the same pattern of prefix plus colour word. The English verb is a parallel formation in the same family, though this entry does not say which language's pattern came first.

Synonyms: brown, darken

Antonyms: lighten