mummy browns

Noun

mummy brown (usually uncountable, plural mummy browns)

1. (historical, usually, painting) A brown pigment originally prepared from the ground-up remains of Egyptian animal or human mummies mixed with bitumen, etc.
   • Mummy brown.—The bituminous substance found in and enveloping Egyptian mummies; it may be considered partly animal and partly bituminous matter.[1842, G[eorge William] Francis, “Application of Chemistry”, in Chemical Experiments; Illustrating the Theory, Practice, and Application of the Science of Chemistry, […], London: G. Berger, […]...

   Synonyms:

   mummy

2. (usually) The colour of this pigment, a variable brown intermediate between raw umber and burnt umber.
   • I then placed it [a wood frog (Lithobates sylvaticus)] in an open window on a whitish bottom, and the next day it was light brown. At 2 p.m., August 24th, I put it on a jet-black shelf, with black surroundings. Forty-five minutes later it was very dark, nearly mummy brown[…], but darker.1893 August, Clarence M. Weed, “The Color Changes of Frogs”, in The Popular Science Monthly, volume XLIII, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton and Company, […], →OCLC, page 492