The brown and orange disks of color are objectively identical, in identical gray surrounds, in this image; their perceived color categories depend on what white they are compared to.
Brown, when used as a general term, is a color that is a darkyellow, orange, or red, of low luminance relative to lighter or white colored objects.[1]
Some amber and yellow colors of lower saturation are called light browns.
The color brown is displayed at right. Another name for this color (rarely used) is dark orange.
Brown paint can be produced by adding black or their complementary colors to rose, red, orange, or yellow colored paint. As a color of low intensity it is a tertiary color in the original technical sense: a mix of the three subtractive primary colors is brown if the cyan content is low. Brown exists as a color perception only in the presence of a brighter color contrast: yellow, orange, red, or rose objects are still perceived as such if the general illumination level is low, despite reflecting the same amount of red or orange light as a brown object would in normal lighting conditions.
The first recorded use of brown as a color name in English was in AD 1000.[2]
Pullman Brown[3] is the color of the United Parcel Service (UPS) delivery company with their trademark brown trucks and uniforms. UPS has filed two trademarks on the color brown to prevent other shipping companies (and possibly other companies in general) from using the color if it creates "market confusion." In its advertising, UPS refers to itself as "Brown" ("What can Brown do for you?").
Brownfields are abandoned, idled, or under-used industrial and commercial facilities where redevelopment for infill housing is complicated by real or perceived environmental contaminations.[4]
Ubuntu is well known for its default brown color scheme. The exact shades have changed from release to release, with a general trend towards lighter colors and 'shiny' graphics.
The term brown or bronze may be used by mestizoHispanics to describe themselves, and by extension these terms may sometimes be applied to all Hispanics, even those of purely European ancestry.
A large number of mammals and predatory birds have a brown coloration. This sometimes changes seasonally, and sometimes remains the same year-round. This color is likely related to camouflage, since the backdrop of some environments, such as the forest floor, is often brown, and especially in the spring and summertime when animals like the Snowshoe Hare get brown fur.
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.[7]
In the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, the GermanNazi paramilitary organization the Sturmabteilung (SA) wore brown uniforms and were known as the brownshirts. It was often said of members of the SA that they were like a beefsteak--"brown on the outside, and red on the inside"--because many of them were former Communists. The color brown was used to represent the Nazi vote on maps of electoral districts in Germany. If someone voted for the Nazis, they were said to be "voting brown". The national headquarters of the Nazi party, in Munich, was called the Brown House. The Nazi seizure of power in 1933 was called the Brown Revolution.[8] At Adolf Hitler's Obersalzberg home, the Berghof, he slept in a "bed which was usually covered by a brown quilt embroidered with a huge swastika. The swastika also appeared on Hitler's brown satin pajamas, embroidered in black against a red background on the pocket. He had a matching brown silk robe."[9]
^ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 191
^"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 Learning to Love Brown. New York Times (1998-04-20). Retrieved on 2008-04-02.
^ Swami Panchadasi The Human Aura: Astral Colors and Thought Forms Des Plaines, Illinois, USA:1912--Yogi Publications Society Page 37
^ Toland, John Hitler: The Pictorial Documentary of his Life Garden City, New York:1978 Doubleday & Sons Chapter 5 "The Brown Revolution" Pages 42-60
^ Infield, Glenn B. Eva and Adolf New York:1974--Grosset and Dunlap Page 142 (The author compiled this book by interviewing Albert Speer and others who had been in Hitler's inner circle, such as SS men, secretaries, and housekeepers. The author also consulted the Musmanno Archives, a record of post-war interviews with over 200 people who had been close to Adolph Hitler or Eva Braun.)