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russet - 5 dictionary results

rus⋅set

  [ruhs-it]
Use russet in a Sentence
–noun
1. yellowish brown, light brown, or reddish brown.
2. a coarse reddish-brown or brownish homespun cloth formerly used for clothing.
3. any of various apples that have a rough brownish skin and ripen in the autumn.
4. a brownish, roughened area on fruit, resulting from diseases, insects, or spraying.
5. russet Burbank.
6. finished leather that is not yet polished or colored.
–adjective
7. yellowish-brown, light-brown, or reddish-brown.
8. made of russet.
Origin:
1225–75; ME < OF rousset, dim. of rous reddish brown, red (of hair); see roux

Related forms:
rus⋅set⋅ish, rus⋅set⋅y, adjective
rus⋅set⋅like, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To russet
rus·set   (rŭs'ĭt)   
n.  
  1. A moderate to strong brown.
  2. A coarse reddish-brown to brown homespun cloth.
  3. A winter apple with a rough reddish-brown skin.
  4. A russet Burbank.
adj.  Moderate to strong brown.

[Middle English, from Old French rousset, from rous, red, from Latin russus; see reudh- in Indo-European roots.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Russet

Rus"set\, a. [F. rousset, dim. of roux red, L. russus (for rudtus, rudhtus), akin to E. red. See Red, and cf. Roussette.]

1. Of a reddish brown color, or (by some called) a red gray; of the color composed of blue, red, and yellow in equal strength, but unequal proportions, namely, two parts of red to one each of blue and yellow; also, of a yellowish brown color.

The morn, in russet mantle clad. --Shak.

Our summer such a russet livery wears. --Dryden.

2. Coarse; homespun; rustic. [R.] --Shak.

Russet

Rus"set\, n. 1. A russet color; a pigment of a russet color.

2. Cloth or clothing of a russet color.

3. A country dress; -- so called because often of a russet color. --Dryden.

4. An apple, or a pear, of a russet color; as, the English russet, and the Roxbury russet.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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russet 
c.1248, "cloth of reddish-brown color" (sense of the color itself is first recorded 1422), from O.Fr. rousset, from rosset (adj.) "reddish," dim. of ros, rous "red," from L. russus, related to ruber "red," from PIE *reudh- "red" (see red). As a color name, attested from 1532. The word was first applied to a type of apples 1629, to a type of pears 1725.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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