the colour brown

Question

Concerning colours, is there a difference between marrón and castaño?

Answer 1

"Castaña" means chestnut, and "castaño" means chestnut-coloured, but it is also used as brown for the eyes. "Marrón" is a much modern term; it was borrowed from French, where it actually meant chestnut too, but this is the most common term for brown nowadays.

In any case, be careful when translating colours, because different cultures have a different colour perception (even though English and Spanish are close), and sometimes there are no words to translate the colours of other languages.

Yes a contant issue - pacofinkler, Aug 2, 2011

Answer 2

I have most often heard café when talking about colors....castaña makes me think of hair or eye color. Moreno is usually used to discribe a person who is 'brown' (has brown features and darker skin)

Answer 3

Another brown is "café" in some countries use "café" instead of "Marrón".

Answer 4

In my opinion yes.

To me " castaño" is a rich medium brown and "Marron a much darker version.

So, is there a word for just regular brown? - MrSillyInc, Aug 2, 2011

My native speaking friends here in Mexico use Castaño as the classic rich brown we use in english - pacofinkler, Aug 2, 2011

Answer 5

Thanks for the answers. I know colours can be confusing sometimes. In Mongolian, orange and yellow are often called the same thing, as are pink and purple. But if you press someone hard enough, you can find that there are specific words for the different colours. Whereas Mongolian tends to group similar colours under one name, it looks like other languages might differentiate a lot more within one colour. Again, thanks for the answers.