sb. and a. Also 8 brunett. [a. F. brunette ‘a nut-browne girle’ (Cotgr.), fem. of brunet, dim. of brun brown.]
A. sb. A girl or woman of a dark complexion.
1713. Guardian, No. 109 (1756), II. 108. Your fair women … thought of this fashion to insult the Olives and the Brunetts.
1796. J. Owen, Trav. Europe, II. 438. My landlady … is a very pretty brunette.
1847. Barham, Ingol. Leg. (1877), 12. Whether the ladies there are short or tall, Brunettes or blondes.
1859. Geo. Eliot, A. Bede, 45. His mother, a beautiful brunette.
B. adj. Of dark complexion, brown-haired; nut-brown. Also absol. the color.
1712. Henley, in Spect., No. 396. You will excuse a Remark which this gentleman’s Passion for the Brunette has suggested to a Brother Theorist.
1752. Sir H. Beaumont, Crito, 11. Raphael’s most charming Madonna is a brunette Beauty.
1815. Hist. J. Decastro, I. 180. Her complexion … cleared up into a fine brunette.
1861. Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, I. v. 32. The Indian Stock … skin brunette rather than black.
1881. G. Allen, Anglo-Sax. Brit., 56. The nation which resulted … being sometimes blonde, sometimes brunette.
Hence Brunetteness (rare).
1839. Fraser’s Mag., XIX. 75. Praising … the pretty brunetteness of a young lily-forced thing.
