tan

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A brown colour the skin gets after spending time in the sun.

   She still has a deep tan from her holiday in Mexico.

2. 2
   adj

   Having browner skin from being in the sun.

   You're looking very tan after the weekend at the beach.

3. 3
   adj

   Of a light yellowish-brown colour.

   He wore a tan jacket over a white shirt.

4. 4
   verb

   To make the skin go brown by being in the sun.

   No matter how long I stay outside, I never tan, I just burn.

Simplified etymology

Tan originally meant to turn animal skins into leather. It probably comes directly from Latin tannare and may ultimately derive from a Celtic word for an oak tree, reflecting the former use of tannin-rich oak bark in tanning. The verb for darkening skin in sunlight appeared in the mid-sixteenth century, and the corresponding color term in the mid-eighteenth century.

From Middle English tan, from Old French tan (“tanbark”), from Gaulish *tannos (“green oak”) – compare Breton tann (“red oak”), Old Cornish tannen –, from Proto-Celtic *tannos (“green oak”), of uncertain origin, but perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *(s)dʰonu (“fir”). Per this hypothesis, related to Hittite [script needed] (tanau, “fir”), Latin femur, genitive feminis (“thigh”), German Tann (“woods”), Tanne (“fir”), Albanian thanë (“cranberry bush”), Ancient Greek θάμνος (thámnos, “thicket”), Avestan 𐬚𐬀𐬥𐬎𐬎𐬀𐬭𐬆 (θanuuar^ə), Sanskrit धनु (dhánu).

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary