brownface means A style of theatrical makeup in which a white person colours the face brown in order to represent somebody of another race.
brownface is pronounced /ˈbɹaʊnˌfeɪs/.
Etymology
From brown + face, based on earlier blackface.
noun
- A style of theatrical makeup in which a white person colours the face brown in order to represent somebody of another race.“The problem isn’t so much Lancaster’s unconvincing brownface makeup — though it looks as if it had been applied by the same heavy laborers who blacktopped Laurence Olivier for “Othello” — as it is the extremely un-Leonardian softness of his presence.”