# maroon

Pronunciation: say "muh-ROON" US /məˈɹun/, UK /məˈɹuːn/, AUS /məˈɹəʉn/

## Adjective

1. Of a rich, dark red color with a somewhat brownish tone.
   - Simple: Having a dark red color mixed with a little brown.
   - _The university's maroon banners hung from every lamppost on campus._
   - _She repainted the front door maroon to match the brick._
5. Associated with the culture, communities, or peoples of the Maroons of the Caribbean and the Americas.
   - Simple: Connected with the culture and communities of people who escaped slavery in the Caribbean or the Americas.
   - _Maroon settlements in Suriname preserved African building styles and farming methods._
   - _Scholars recorded Maroon oral histories passed down through generations._

## Noun

2. A rich, dark red color, somewhat brownish in tone, deeper than crimson.
   - Simple: A dark red color with some brown in it.
   - _The leather sofa came in maroon, navy, and forest green._
   - _By late October, the vineyard's leaves had turned a dusky maroon._
4. A Black person who escaped slavery in the Caribbean or the Americas, or a descendant of one.
   - Simple: A Black person who escaped slavery in the Caribbean or the Americas, or one of their descendants.
   - _The Maroons of Jamaica signed a treaty with the British in 1739._
   - _Historians traced the family back to a Maroon who founded a free settlement in Suriname._
6. An idiot; a fool, typically used as a comic insult. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A joking, slightly rude word for a foolish person.
   - _What kind of maroon tries to microwave a metal bowl?_
   - _He called himself a maroon for locking the keys in the car again._
7. A rocket firework that explodes with a loud report, often used as a signal: for example, to summon a lifeboat crew or warn of an air raid.
   - Simple: A loud firework shot into the sky as a signal or a warning.
   - _Two maroons fired from the station roused the volunteer lifeboat crew before dawn._
   - _The wardens launched a maroon to warn the town of approaching bombers._

## Verb

3. To abandon someone in a remote, desolate place, such as a desert island.
   - Simple: To leave someone alone in a faraway place where they cannot get help or escape.
   - _Mutineers marooned the navigator on an uninhabited atoll with a week's provisions._
   - _Captains sometimes threatened to maroon troublemakers rather than hang them._

## Other meanings

- (noun) A castaway; a person who has been abandoned or stranded in a remote, desolate place.

## Origin

**Meanings 3–5** — From French marron ("feral; fugitive"), an adjective taken from Spanish cimarrón, meaning "fugitive, wild, or feral".
**Meanings 1–2** — Borrowed from French marron ("chestnut; brown"), which traces back through Italian marrone to Byzantine Greek μάραον (máraon). It is a doublet of marron ("sweet chestnut").
**Meaning 7** — Probably from French marron ("chestnut"), also a French name for a firework that bursts with a bang, like a chestnut bursting in a fire.
**Meaning 6** — This is how the cartoon character Bugs Bunny deliberately mispronounced "moron," and the word grew out of his use of it.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/maroon (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).