The word "fawn" in literature wears many hats. It often appears as a noun referring to a young deer, evoking images of delicate, agile, and sometimes enchanted creatures that add a sense of innocence or transformation to the narrative ([1], [2], [3]). In other instances, it functions as an adjective describing a gentle, light-brown hue that enriches the visual texture of a scene, such as in depictions of fawn-colored leather and similar tones ([4]). Moreover, as a verb, "to fawn" is used to illustrate acts of excessive flattery or servility, capturing the nuances of a character’s obsequious behavior in both critical and ironic contexts ([5], [6], [7]).
- The Sister, finding she could not prevent him, opened the door, with a heavy heart, and the Fawn jumped out, quite delighted, into the forest.
— from Grimm's Fairy Stories by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm
- As soon as she had said this, the little Fawn sprang off quite glad and merry in the fresh breeze.
— from Grimm's Fairy Stories by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm
- The little Fawn was disenchanted, and received once more his human form; and the Brother and Sister lived happily together to the end of their days.
— from Grimm's Fairy Stories by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm
- The balcony on which these young girls stood opened from a chamber richly tapestried in fawn-colored Flanders leather, stamped with golden foliage.
— from Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo
- She flattered Orlov, and to wring from him a counterfeit smile or kiss, was ready to go on her knees to him, to fawn on him like a dog.
— from The Lady with the Dog and Other Stories by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
- I have thought it better to be neglected than to fawn, to be dumb than to feign, to be seldom a friend than to be often a flatterer.
— from Meditations by Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius
- I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius, The more you beat me, I will fawn on you.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare