TAN

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
tan1

▶noun

• 1 a yellowish-brown colour.

• 2 a golden-brown shade of skin developed by pale-skinned people after exposure to the sun.

• 3 (also tanbark) bark of oak or other trees, bruised and used as a source of tannin for converting hides into leather.

  ■ (also spent tan) such bark from which the tannin has been extracted, used for covering paths and in gardening.

▶verb (tans, tanning, tanned)

• 1 (often as adj. tanned) acquire or cause to acquire a suntan.

• 2 convert (animal skin) into leather, especially by soaking in a liquid containing tannic acid.

• 3 informal, dated beat (someone) as a punishment.

▶adjective N. Amer. having a suntan.

– derivatives
tannable adjective,
tannish adjective.

– origin OE tannian ‘convert into leather’, prob. from med. L. tannare, perh. of Celtic origin; reinforced in ME by OFr. tanner.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
tan2

▶abbreviation tangent.