mouse-dun, a. and n.
a. adj. Mouse-coloured. b. n. The dun colour of a mouse; mouse-colour.
| c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. iv. 832 Black bay, & permixt gray, mousdon [L. murinus]..and many mo [colours]. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iii. 116 b, Touching the colours..the mousedun, and the grisel weare most esteemed. 1611 Cotgr. s.v. Poil, Couleur de poil de souris, a Mouse-colour, or Mouse-dunne. 1639 T. de la Grey Compl. Horsem. 58 Your mouse-dunne and such like rusty and sut colours. 1686 Lond. Gaz. No. 2146/4 Stray'd or stolen.., a dark mouse dun long made Gelding. 1859 Darwin Orig. Spec. v. (1873) 129 These stripes occur far oftenest in duns and mouse-duns. 1907 Q. Rev. Apr. 554 The mouse-dun Tarpan of the Russian steppes. |