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 ...

. The name is derived from tannum ( oak

bark Bark may refer to: * Bark (botany), an outer layer of a woody plant such as a tree or stick * Bark (sound), a vocalization of some animals (which is commonly the dog) Places * Bark, Germany * Bark, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland Arts, e ...

) used in the tanning of

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 hog ...

. 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 ...

was in the year 1590. Chestnut Oak Bark

Colors which are similar or may be considered synonymous to tan include: tawny, tenné, and fulvous. __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 Normalization or normalisation refers to a process that makes something more normal or regular. Most commonly it refers to: * Normalization (sociology) or social normalization, the process through which ideas and behaviors that may fall outside o ...

for Tuscan tan are identical to café au lait 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 beret as well as Canada's Canadian Special Operations Regiment and Joint Task Force 2.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 animal coverings, such as the arthropod exoskeleton, have different ...

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

References

{{Authority control Shades of brown