Where does “brunette” come from?

brunette (French) comes from French brun, from Italian Bruno, from Medieval Latin brunus, from Frankish brūn, from Proto-Germanic *brūn, from Proto-Germanic brūnaz, from Proto-Indo-European bʰerH- — to pierce; to strike; brown.

brunette (French): brunette

Definitions

  1. brunette

Ancestry of “brunette”, step by step

brunette traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via French brun

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Frenchbrunbrown; brown-haired person
2ItalianBrunodark gray, almost black
3Medieval Latinbrunusbrown, brunet
4Frankishbrūnbrown, dark, shiny
5Proto-Germanic*brūn—
6Proto-Germanicbrūnazbrown
7Proto-Indo-EuropeanbʰerH-to pierce; to strike; brown

via Old French brunete

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Old Frenchbrunetebrunette
2Old French-éused to form past participles of regular -er...
3Latin-asuffixed to the roots of verbs, forms agent...
4Proto-Italic-āForms masculine agent nouns from prefixed or compounded bases
5Proto-Indo-European-éh₂—

Words derived from “brunette”

Every word from Proto-Indo-European bʰerH- →Every word from Proto-Germanic brūnaz →Every word from Proto-Germanic *brūn →