donn

• don (northern Moselle Franconian, some rural dialects of Ripuarian)
• dunn (Kölsch), dun (southern Moselle Franconian)

From Middle High German duon, from Old High German duon, West Central German variant of tuon, from Proto-West Germanic *dōn.

• IPA^(key): /don/

donn (third-person singular present deet, preterite and subjunctive dät, past participle jedon or jedonn) (many dialects of Ripuarian)

1. to do

   Ich donn hee de janze Ärbeet! ― I’m doing all the work here!

2. Used in the preterite with a following infinitive to form the paraphrastic preterite.

   Ich dät us der Finster luure. ― I looked out the window.

3. Used in the subjunctive with a following infinitive to form the conditional tense.

   Ich dät jo noch jet blieve, ävver meng Frau well heem.

   I would stay some more, but my wife wants to go home.

• The past participle has an open vowel /ɔ/, either long or short, but never /o/ as in the infinitive.
• Regular verbs whose stems end in -d or -t cannot form a synthetic preterite. With other regular verbs, the paraphrastic construction is preferred, but synthetic forms are possible in Ripuarian (unlike Moselle Franconian); thus alternatively: Ich luurten us der Finster. (“I looked out the window.”) With irregular verbs, to the contrary, the synthetic preterite is usually preferred. The paraphrastic construction is ruled out with auxiliaries and modals.
• Irrespective of this, the scope of the preterite as such is restricted as it is in colloquial Standard German. The past is predominantly expressed by the perfect tense. More southern dialects of Moselle Franconian (including Luxembourgish) preserve only a small number of preterite forms.

• Hunsrik: dun
• Luxembourgish: doen, dinn (alternative standard, chiefly south-western areas), dunn, dongen (now dated, dialectal)

• (Munster) IPA^(key): /d̪ˠoun̪ˠ/, /d̪ˠəun̪ˠ/
• (Connacht) IPA^(key): (Galway) /d̪ˠaun̪ˠ/^[1], (Mayo) /d̪ˠun̪ˠ/
• (Ulster) IPA^(key): /d̪ˠɞn̪ˠ/^[2]

From Old Irish donn,^[3] from Proto-Celtic *dusnos (“brown”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂- (“smoke”).

donn (genitive singular masculine doinn, genitive singular feminine doinne, plural donna, comparative doinne)

1. brown
2. brown-haired, brunette
3. made of hard brown timber
4. strong, solid
5. used as intensifying term

Obsolete spellings

donn m or f (genitive singular doinn or doinne)

1. brown (colour)
2. brown animal (masculine or feminine declined differently)
3. hard brown timber

Feminine (only used to refer to a female brown animal)

donn (present analytic donnann, future analytic donnfaidh, verbal noun donnadh, past participle donnta)

1. (ambitransitive) alternative form of donnaigh (“brown; tan, rust”)

Colors in Irish · dathanna (layout · text)

bán	liath	dubh
dearg; corcairdhearg	oráiste, flannbhuí; donn	buí; bánbhuí
líoma-ghlas, glas líoma	glas, uaine	dath an mhiontais
cian	gormghlas, spéirghorm	gorm
corcairghorm; indeagó	maigeanta; corcra	bándearg

From Old Irish donn (“chief, lord, noble”),^[4] from Proto-Indo-European *dʰus-no-.

donn m (genitive singular doinn, nominative plural doinn)

2. (literary) noble, prince

• Donn m (proper noun)

donn f (genitive singular doinne, nominative plural donna)

1. alternative form of dronn (“hump; camber”)

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977), “donn”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1959), “donn”, in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm
• “donn”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013–2026

From Arabic. Probably the imperfect of ظَنَّ (ẓanna, “to think, opine, conjecture”) in a phrase like أَظُنُّهُم مُتَضايِقِين (ʔaẓunnuhum mutaḍāyiqīn, “I think them despondent”). Then reconstrued as an adverb (or false verb). Alternatively from the related noun ظَنّ (ẓann, “opinion, conjecture”), but this seems unlikely.

• IPA^(key): /dɔnn/
• Rhymes: -ɔnn

donn-

1. seemingly, by appearance

   Kienu donnhom imdejqin.

   They seemed despondent.

   (literally, “They were (by) their appearance despondent.”)

   Donnok ma tifhimx.

   You don’t seem to understand.

   (literally, “(By) your appearance you don’t understand.”)

• As above, the word takes pronominal suffixes according to the subject.

• dond

• IPA^(key): /ˈd̪on̪/

From Proto-Celtic *dusnos (“brown”).

donn

1. brown, tawny, dun
2. hazel (of eyes)
3. chestnut (of animals)

Alternative declension:

• Irish: donn
• Manx: dhone
• Scottish Gaelic: donn

From Proto-Indo-European *dʰus-no-.

donn m

1. chief, lord, noble

   Synonyms: mál, toísech, túathach

2. lordship, chieftainship

   Synonyms: flaith, tigernas

• Irish: donn

donn

1. princely, noble

Alternative declension

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

donn (gender unknown, genitive duinn)

1. theft, stolen property

Its gender is unknown, although Binchy in his edition of Críth Gablach provisionally treats it as neuter.

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “1 donn”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “2 donn”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “3 donn”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

donn

1. then, at that time

From Old Irish donn,^[1] from Proto-Celtic *dusnos (“brown”), from Proto-Indo-European *dusnos-, *donnos- (“dark”), from *dʰewh₂- (“smoke”).

• IPA^(key): /d̪̊ɔ̃ũn̪ˠ/^[2], (Lewis) [d̪̊ɔ̃ʊ̃n̪ˠ]^[3]
• (mid and south Argyll) IPA^(key): /d̪̊on̪ˠ(ː)/, [donʷˑ]^[4]

donn (comparative nas duinne, superlative as duinne)

1. brown
2. (hair color) brown-haired, brunette

• comhachag-dhonn
• dreathan donn

Colors in Scottish Gaelic · dathan (layout · text)

bàn, geal	glas	dubh
dearg; ruadh	orains; donn	buidhe; donn
uaine	uaine	gorm
liath; glas	liath	gorm
purpaidh; guirmean	pinc; purpaidh	pinc

• Edward Dwelly (1911), “donn”, in Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan [The Illustrated Gaelic–English Dictionary], 10th edition, Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN
• MacBain, Alexander; Mackay, Eneas (1911), “donn”, in An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language‎^[1], Stirling, →ISBN