In literature the color “dun” is often employed to evoke an understated, earthy tone that suggests the natural hues of animals, landscapes, and even crafted materials. Authors use “dun” to describe the muted, brownish-gray coats of horses and other animals—as seen in descriptions of various dun mares and horses [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]—while also employing it to paint entire settings with its drab, wintery quality [9, 10, 11]. Writers sometimes play with its nuance further through compound forms like “dun‑cream” [12] or color variations such as “yellow‑dun” and “paler dun” [13, 14] to capture subtle shifts in tone. In this way, “dun” contributes to a vivid sense of realism and atmosphere, emphasizing nature’s modest beauty through its reserved, natural coloring.
- Quick, saddle my [42] dun mare, and let my knights and squires prepare to attend me."
— from Laboulaye's Fairy Book by Édouard Laboulaye
- Two horses still hitched to it lay on their backs, one of which I recognized as Gregory's one-eyed dun which I had ridden foraging at Bridgewater.
— from The Story of a Cannoneer Under Stonewall Jackson
In Which is Told the Part Taken by the Rockbridge Artillery in the Army of Northern Virginia by Edward Alexander Moore
- Then, much to Harboro’s surprise, Runyon appeared, riding away from the corral on his beautiful dun horse.
— from Children of the Desert by Louis Dodge
- In the roome within this great roome is the picture of King Charles the First on his dun horse by Van Dyk; it hangs over the chimney.
— from The Natural History of Wiltshire by John Aubrey
- , I concluded to get a fresh horse, and, not wishing to part with any of my old standbys, I traded Cyclone even up for a dun mare to go with Bess.
— from The Cruise of a Schooner by Albert W. (Albert Wadsworth) Harris
- And marvellous was the hue of the dun horse.
— from The Mabinogion Vol. 1
- “C’mon, hoss,” said the erstwhile spectator, turning his dun-colored mount again into the trail.
— from The Coyote
A Western Story by James Roberts
- "Dun horse, five years," wrote on Darby, "twenty pounds a side—over a natural course of three miles."
— from The Scratch Pack by Dorothea Conyers
- Everywhere, on thorns and furze and briars, the touch of the new life had hung emeralds to bedeck and hide the dun waste of winter.
— from Gloria Mundi by Harold Frederic
- It stood carefully fenced about in the drain from the big artesian well,—a vivid blot of green against the dun background.
— from Ben Blair
The Story of a Plainsman by Will Lillibridge
- The thunder rumbled away in the east; the rain stopped falling, and a rift of blue showed through the dun masses overhead.
— from The Love Story of Abner Stone by Edwin Carlile Litsey
- It might be described as a dun-cream or cream-dun, « 17 » the two shades seeming to struggle for supremacy.
— from The Bird Watcher in the Shetlands, with Some Notes on Seals—and Digressions by Edmund Selous
- This fly will be found on the water till the end of September, with the paler dun, yellow dun, blue dun, and willow fly.
— from Blacker's Art of Fly Making, &c.
Comprising Angling, & Dyeing of Colours, with Engravings of Salmon & Trout Flies by W. (William) Blacker
- “Minnow!” repeated the Corporal gruffly, “ask your honour’s pardon. Minnow!—I have fished with the yellow-dun these twenty years, and never knew it
— from Eugene Aram — Complete by Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron