bruin

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.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈbɹuːɪn/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːɪn

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 […].

• oud bruin

• Bruni, Burin, Rubin, burin, rub in, rubin

From Dutch bruin.

• Audio:

  (file)

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

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

• IPA^(key): /brœy̯n/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: bruin
• Rhymes: -œy̯n

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 bruinst het bruinste
indefinite	m./f. sing.	bruine	bruinere	bruinste
	n. sing.	bruin	bruiner	bruinste
	plural	bruine	bruinere	bruinste
definite		bruine	bruinere	bruinste
partitive		bruins	bruiners	—

• Afrikaans: bruin
• Negerhollands: bruun, brin, bryen
• → Papiamentu: brùin, brein, bruin
• → Sranan Tongo: broin

From the adjective bruin.

bruin n (uncountable)

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)

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