Dun

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David Myer
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Dun

Postby David Myer » Fri Jun 17, 2022 8:27 am

I see this word was suggested (but not taken up) back in 2006. It elicited several responses, most of which I am afraid, I couldn't follow.

But playing Scrabble this evening, my partner queried my use of it in the game. She had never heard of it before. I said without checking that it is almost always used to describe the colour of a cow. I said reddish-brown. But when we looked it up, grayish-brown seems to be the prevailing description. Interestingly, it is a common pub name in UK and most of the pub signs (on Google) depict reddish-brown cows.

So what colour is dun? And might the history of the word help us here?

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Slava
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Re: Dun

Postby Slava » Fri Jul 28, 2023 6:56 pm

Neither meaning of dun seems to have solid roots.

Apparently this one's related to donkey, which might help explain why my father pronounced it 'dunkey.'
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