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ma·roon²

(mə-rn)

A dark reddish brown to dark purplish red.

[From Early Modern English, a kind of large sweet chestnut, from Middle French marron, from Italian marrone, from Old Italian, from a Romance root *marr-, rock, possibly of pre-Roman substrate origin (for the semantic development, compare Spanish berrueco, rocky reef, and Spanish dialectal (Cantabrian Mountains) berrueca, large chestnut).]

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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