etymology - Why are reveries sometimes called "brown" studies?


Though this idiom is by no means very common, one comes across it now and then. (I just came across it again today, which is why I'm asking this question.)


Why is a "brown study" so named?



Answer



From TheFreeDictionary.com:



brown study n a mood of deep absorption or thoughtfulness; reverie ...
Gloomy meditation or melancholy is known as being in a brown study.



This is a somewhat archaic usage (it may be a rural or Southern U.S. regionalism, but I don't have access to my tools for tracking that down just at the moment), although it has been used in poetry to good effect. Consider this stanza from John Crowe Ransom's "Bells for John Whiteside's Daughter":



There was such speed in her little body,
And such lightness in her footfall,
It is no wonder her brown study astonishes us all



He's talking about death as a "brown study" in an example of understatement.


Edit


@Kit brings up a good point. "Brown" used to mean gloomy exclusively. From Etymonline:



brown O.E. brun "dark, dusky," only developing a definite color sense 13c



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