fulvous

[ fuhl-vuhs ]

adjective

1. tawny; dull yellowish-gray or yellowish-brown.

fulvous

/ ˈfʊl-; ˈfʌlvəs /

adjective

1. of a dull brownish-yellow colour; tawny

Word History and Origins

Origin of fulvous¹

1655–65; < Latin fulvus deep yellow, tawny, reddish-yellow; -ous

Word History and Origins

Origin of fulvous¹

C17: from Latin fulvus reddish yellow, gold-coloured, tawny; probably related to fulgēre to shine

Example Sentences

Humans’ teeth, which once met in a predator’s vise, slid into an overbite as people turned to the softer foods that agriculture provided, shaping sounds such as “farm,” “vivid,” “fulvous” and “favorite.”

From Scientific American

Others come in one of the nearly infinite shades of brown that tax the vocabulary of avian taxonomists: rufous, fulvous, ferruginous, bran-coloured, foxy.

From The Guardian

Horace R. Cayton, co-author of the groundbreaking sociological study “Black Metropolis,” sits pensively in a portrait from 1949, his skin lit into fulvous brown by sunlight from a single window.

From New York Times

In the rice fields of eastern Texas, this practice has seriously reduced the populations of the fulvous tree duck, a tawny-colored, gooselike duck of the Gulf Coast.

From Literature

Shell ventricose, with fulvous spots and white bands; spire slender, acute; suture entire.

From Project Gutenberg