Marrón: formas y matices

Abstract

Colour vocabulary is an excellent field to study about the behaviour and development of words, not only from a merely linguistic point of view, but also considering the society that uses those words. The term marrón appeared in Spanish papers and magazines of the mid-19th century, and it ended up replacing the word castaño, which traditionally used to designate that colour. We intend to show here how that change was caused by what has been called el giro extranjerizante, that favours certain words over others.