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This article is about the color. For other uses, see Brown (disambiguation).
BrownHow to read this color infobox
Color icon brown v2.svg
About these coordinates     Color coordinates
Hex triplet #964B00
sRGBB  (rgb) (150, 75, 0)
CMYKH   (c, m, y, k) (0, 50, 100, 41)
HSV       (h, s, v) (30°, 100%, 59%)
Source [Unsourced]
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)
H: Normalized to [0–100] (hundred)
Some shades of Brown
Brown (X11)  
Pale Brown  
Medium Brown  
Dark Brown  

Brown is the color of dark wood or rich soil.[1] It is a composite color made by combining red, black and yellow.[2][3] The color is seen widely in nature, in wood, soil, and human hair color, eye color and skin pigmentation. In Europe and the United States, it is the color most often associated with plainness, humility, the rustic, and poverty. It is also, according to public opinion surveys, the least favorite color of the public. [4]

Shades and varieties of brown

(See also Variations of brown)


The term is from Old English brún, in origin for any dusky or dark shade of color. The first recorded use of brown as a color name in English was in 1000.[9][10] The Common Germanic adjective *brûnoz, *brûnâ meant both dark colors and a glistening or shining quality, whence burnish. The current meaning developed in Middle English from the 14th century.[11]


History and art

The ancient world


The Ancient Greeks and Romans produced a fine reddish brown ink, of a color called sepia, made from the ink of a variety of cuttlefish. This ink was used by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and other artists during the Renaissance, and by artists up until the present time.


The Middle Ages and Renaissance


And is gladde of a goune of a graye russet
As of a tunicle of Tarse or of trye scarlet.



17th and 18th century


19th and 20th century


In Harlem in the mid-20th century, lighter brown skin was considered more socially desirable in the African-American community. In her 1942 Glossary of Harlem Slang, Zora Neale Hurston placed "high yaller", or very light brown, at the beginning of the her African American colorscale, which ran:



Brown had originally been chosen as a Party color largely for convenience; large numbers of war-surplus brown uniforms from Germany's former colonial forces in Africa were cheaply available in the 1920s. It also suited the working-class and military images that the Party wished to convey. Through the 1930s, the Party's brown uniforms were mass-produced by the German clothing firm owned by Hugo Boss (1885-1948). Boss became a member of the Nazi Party in 1931, and was licensed supplier for the SA, the SS, and the Hitler Youth. After World War II he was stripped of his right to vote and his presidency of the company, but the company continued in business and still carries his name.[19][20]


Brown in science and nature


Brown is a composite color, made by combining red, yellow and black.[21] In the RGB color model, which uses red, green and blue light in various combinations to make all the colors on computer and television screens, it is made by mixing red and green light.

In terms of the visible spectrum, "brown" refers to high wavelength (low frequency) hues, yellow, orange, or red, in combination with low luminance or saturation.[22] Since brown may cover a wide range of the visible spectrum, composite adjectives are used such as red brown, yellowish brown, dark brown or light brown.


Brown pigments, dyes and inks

  • Mars brown. The names of the earth colors are still used, but very few modern pigments with these names actually contain natural earths; most of their ingredients today are synthetic.[25] Mars brown is typical of these new colors, made with synthetic iron oxide pigments. The new colors have a superior coloring power and opacity, but not the delicate hue as their namesakes.[25]
  • The Chestnut tree has also been used since ancient times as a source brown dye. The bark of the tree, the leaves and the husk of the nuts have all been used to make dye. The leaves were used to make a beige or yellowish brown dye, and in the Ottoman Empire the yellow-brown from chestnut leaves was combined with indigo blue to make shades of green.[28]
  • Sepia is a reddish-brown ink from the ink sac of the common cuttlefish Sepia. It was used for writing and drawing by the Romans, and by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and many other artists of the Renaissance.
  • The Gall nut, a small round growth on oak trees caused by insects, was also used for making a dark-brown writing ink. Iron gall ink (also known as iron gall nut ink or oak gall ink) was a purple-black or brown-black ink made from iron salts and tannic acids from the gall nut. It was the standard writing and drawing ink in Europe, from about the 12th century to the 19th century, and remained in use well into the 20th century.

Brown eyes

In humans, brown eyes result from a relatively high concentration of melanin in the stroma of the iris, which causes light of both shorter and longer wavelengths to be absorbed[29][30] and in many parts of the world, it is nearly the only iris color present.[31] Dark pigment of brown eyes is most common in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Asia, Oceania, Africa, Americas, etc. as well as parts of Eastern Europe and Southern Europe.[32] The majority of people in the world overall have dark brown eyes. Light or medium-pigmented brown eyes are common in Europe, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Northern India, as well as some parts of the Middle East. (See eye color).

Brown hair



Brown skin


Natural skin color can darken as a result of tanning due to exposure to sunlight. The leading theory is that skin color adapts to intense sunlight irradiation to provide partial protection against the ultraviolet fraction that produces damage and thus mutations in the DNA of the skin cells.[35] There is a correlation between the geographic distribution of Ultraviolet radiation (UVR) and the distribution of indigenous skin pigmentation around the world. Darker-skinned populations are found in the regions with the most ultraviolet, closer to the equator, while lighter skinned populations live closer to the poles, with less UVR; though immigration has changed these patterns.[36]



The thin top layer of the earth's crust on land is largely made up of soil colored different shades of brown.[38] Good soil is composed of about forty-five percent minerals, twenty-five percent water, twenty-five percent air, and five percent organic material, living and dead. Half the color of soil comes from minerals it contains; soils containing iron turn yellowish or reddish as the iron oxidizes. Manganese, nitrogen and sulfur turn brownish or blackish as they decay naturally. Rich and fertile soils tend to be darker in color; the deeper brown color of fertile soil comes from the decomposing of the organic matter. Dead leaves and roots become black or brown as they decay. Poorer soils are usually paler brown in color, and contain less water or organic matter.






  • The solid waste excreted by human beings and many other animals is characteristically brown in color due to the presence of bilirubin, a by-product of destruction of red blood cells.

Brown in culture

Brown is the least-loved of colors. A survey showed that brown was the favorite color of only one percent of respondents, ranked below white and pink, and the least-favorite color of twenty-percent of people, even less popular than pink, gray and violet.[39]

Brown uniforms





Idioms and expressions

  • "In a brown study" (melancholy).


  • It is said that people who have brown auras are often unethical businessmen who are in business purely for the sake of greed, or people who are just generally greedy and avaricious.[43]


See also


  • Vachiron, Anne, Couleurs-pigments et teintures dans les mains des peuples, Editions du Seuil, Paris, (2005) (ISBN 978-2-02-08469-4)
  • Heller, Eva, Psychologie de la couleur -effets at symboliques, (2009), Pyramyd, Munich, ISBN 978-2-35017-156-2

Notes and citations

  2. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, (2002), Oxford University Press.
  3. ^ Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language: "A combination of red, black and yellow."
  6. ^ Oxford English Dictionary
  7. ^ "Brun rouge assez foncé." Le Petit Robert (1988).
  8. ^ Oxford English Dictionary
  10. ^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 191
  12. ^ [1] Omniglot- words for colors in different languages.
  14. ^ Eva Heller, Psychologe de la couleur; effets et et symboliques. p. 219
  21. ^ Shorter Oxford Dictionary, (2002).
  27. ^ Anne Varichon, Couleurs- pigments et teintures dans les mains des peuples, pp. 264-265
  28. ^ Anne Varichon, Couleurs- pigments et teintures dans les mains des peuples, pp. 262-263
  40. ^ Army Dress Uniform
  41. ^ "They started out being Pullman brown," said Peter Fredo, U.P.S.'s vice president for advertising and public relations […] The trucks have been brown since 1916 […] "it was the epitome of luxury and class at the time.", in Jacobs, Karrie (1998-04-20). "Learning to Love Brown". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-04-02. 
  42. ^ "Glossary of Terms for Brownfields" (PDF). HSRC. Archived from the original on 2006-03-25. Retrieved 2006-05-25. 

External links

  • Media related to Brown at Wikimedia Commons