Tan is a pale tone of

brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model us ...

. The name is derived from tannum (

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

bark) used in the

tanning Tanning may refer to: *Tanning (leather), treating animal skins to produce leather *Sun tanning, using the sun to darken pale skin **Indoor tanning, the use of artificial light in place of the sun **Sunless tanning, application of a stain or dye t ...

leather Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning, or chemical treatment, of animal skins and hides to prevent decay. The most common leathers come from cattle, sheep, goats, equine animals, buffalo, pigs and hogs, ...

. The first recorded use of ''tan'' as a

color Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...

name in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

was in the year 1590. Chestnut Oak Bark

Colors which are similar or may be considered synonymous to tan include: tawny,

tenné In heraldry, tenné (; sometimes termed tenny or tawny) is a "stain", or non-standard tincture, of orange (in English blazonry), light brown (in French heraldry) or orange- tawny (in continental heraldry) colour. Tenné, however, is not to be ...

, and

fulvous Fulvous is a colour, sometimes described as dull orange, brownish-yellow or tawny; it can also be likened to a variation of buff, beige or butterscotch. As an adjective it is used in the names of many species of birds, and occasionally other an ...

. __TOC__

Variations of tan

Sandy tan

Displayed at right is the color ''Sandy tan''. This color was formulated by Crayola in 2000 as a Crayola marker color.

Tan (Crayola)

Displayed at right is the orangish tone of tan called ''tan'' since 1958 in Crayola crayons and 1990 in Crayola markers.

Windsor tan

Displayed at right is the color ''Windsor tan''. The first recorded use of ''Windsor tan'' as a color name in English was in 1925.

Tuscan tan

Displayed at right is the color ''Tuscan tan''. The first recorded use of ''Tuscan tan'' as a color name in English was in 1926. The normalized color coordinates for Tuscan tan are identical to

café au lait ''Café au lait'' (; ; French for "coffee with milk") is coffee with hot milk added. It differs from white coffee, which is coffee with cold milk or other whiteners added. Variations Europe In Europe, ''café au lait'' stems from the same c ...

and French beige, which were first recorded as color names in English in 1839 and 1927, respectively.

In human culture

Military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

* Tan is the color of the

United States Army Rangers United States Army Rangers, according to the US Army's definition, are personnel, past or present, in any unit that has the official designation "Ranger". The term is commonly used to include graduates of the US Army Ranger School, even if t ...

beret as well as Canada's

Canadian Special Operations Regiment The Canadian Special Operations Regiment (CSOR; french: links=no, Régiment d'opérations spéciales du Canada, ROSC) is a Special Forces unit of the Canadian Armed Forces and forms part of the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command (CANSOFCOM ...

and

Joint Task Force 2 Joint Task Force 2 (JTF 2; french: links=no, Deuxième Force opérationnelle interarmées, FOI 2) is an elite special operations force of the Canadian Armed Forces, serving under the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command. JTF 2 is known to wo ...

.http://www.csor-rosc.forces.gc.ca/index-eng.asp.

Sunbathing Sun tanning or tanning is the process whereby skin color is darkened or tanned. It is most often a result of exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from sunlight or from artificial sources, such as a tanning lamp found in indoor tanning b ...

* When a person sunbathes to make their

skin Skin is the layer of usually soft, flexible outer tissue covering the body of a vertebrate animal, with three main functions: protection, regulation, and sensation. Other cuticle, animal coverings, such as the arthropod exoskeleton, have diffe ...

darker, they are said to be ''getting a tan''.

References

{{Authority control Shades of brown