fawn

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A young deer.

   The city recently carried out a deer census, determining there are 313 stags (males), 798 does (females) and 214 fawns (babies) in Nara Park.

2. 2
   verb

   To seek favour by flattery and obsequious behaviour.

   You showed your teeth like apes, and fawned like hounds.

Simplified etymology

Fawn has two unrelated origins. The noun meaning “young deer” entered Middle English from Old French faon, based on Latin fetus, “offspring”; its use for a light brown color dates only from the late 19th century. The verb meaning “seek favor submissively” comes from Old English fagnian, “make or be glad,” and developed through descriptions of dogs showing delight by wagging, whining, or groveling.

From Middle English fawne, fowne, foun, from Old French faon, foon, feon, from Vulgar Latin *fētōnem, from Latin fētus (“offspring, young”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁(y)- (“to suckle, nurse”). Displaced native Old English hindċealf (literally “deer calf”). Doublet of fetus.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary