Dun

How to spell dun

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce dun

What does dun mean?

1. adjectiveOf a dull greyish-brown colour, especially used of a horse's coat.
2. verbTo make persistent demands on someone for payment of an outstanding debt.

Dun in a sentence

• adjective

  The stable kept one dun pony with a dark stripe along its back.

• verb

  The agency will dun customers by letter once an invoice is overdue.

• adjective

  The moorland faded to a dun brown under the heavy autumn sky.

• verb

  Creditors began to dun him daily after the loan defaulted.

Where does dun come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The colour word comes straight from Old English dunn, which meant a dull greyish-brown or dingy darkish shade, and it is one of the oldest colour terms in English, related to similar Germanic and possibly Celtic words for that murky tone. From early times it was used especially of horses with a sandy grey-brown coat, and that equestrian use survives today. The unrelated verb meaning 'to demand payment of a debt' appeared much later, in the 1600s, and its origin is genuinely uncertain: one popular suggestion links it to 'din', the persistent loud noise a creditor makes, while others trace it to a proper name, though that story is unreliable. Because the verb and noun for debt-demanding grew up beside the ancient colour word, modern English carries several distinct 'dun' meanings under one tiny three-letter spelling. The chief spelling trap is that 'dun' sounds exactly like 'done', so writers must keep the short, plain colour-and-debt word apart from the past participle of 'do'.

How the word is built

• dun (from Old English dunn: dull grey-brown); the verb sense is a separate, later word of uncertain origin

Words that sound like dun

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• done: Completed, finished, or brought to an end.