Definition:Brown Numbers/Linguistic Note

Linguistic Note on Brown Numbers
The origin of the term Brown numbers is currently unclear.

It is supposed that they may be named after a mathematician, but research will be needed to establish which one.

It is understood that there is no association with the urban industrial street definition for the term brown numbers: numbers which are made up as you go along, in order to support a deliberately fallacious argument or false statement: literally brown, because you've just pulled them out of your arse.