brown talk

Preserved but no longer current.

Meaning · English

Conversation of an exceedingly proper character, Quakerish. Compare BLUE.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

trò chuyện rất đúng mực, giống như của người Quaker

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Era: ca. 1874 (Victorian)

Where it’s used: Origin British & Irish English
Sources & notes

Historical definition reproduced from Hotten’s The Slang Dictionary (1874, public domain; Project Gutenberg #42108, retrieved 2026-07-31). Reflects the attitudes of its era.

Common questions

What does “brown talk” mean?

Conversation of an exceedingly proper character, Quakerish. Compare BLUE.

Is “brown talk” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.