Also 7 tann(e. [prob. a. F. tan (13th c. in Littré, also in Cotgr. 1611 ‘tan, the barke of a young Oake, wherewith, being small beaten, leather is tanned’) = med.L. tannum, app. of Celtic origin: cf. Breton tann masc., oak, Cornish glas-tannen evergreen oak, ilex (Thurneysen). Thence the vb., med.L. tannāre, OF. tanner to tan; cf. also Da. taan, late MDu. tāne tan, tānen to tan.]
I. 1. The crushed bark of the oak or of other trees, an infusion of which is used in converting hides into leather.
[1604: implied in tan-mill; 1611 in tan-pit: see C.]
1674. Jeake, Arith. (1696), 69. Tann, 1 Load must be 60 yards long, 1 yard high, 3 Rinds thick.
1706. Phillips (ed. 6), Tan, the Bark of a young Oak, beaten small and us’d … for the tanning … of Leather.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., Not only the bark, but every part of the oak-tree … makes good Tan.
1840. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 7), XXI. 73/2. The word tan is sometimes, though improperly, used for the bark itself, which is the chief ingredient in the tanning of leather.
1852. Morfit, Tanning & Currying (1853), 38. The name tan is applied to coarsely-powdered bark containing a principle which is the active agent in the tanning of hides.
b. Spent bark from the tan-pits, used by gardeners, and for riding-courses, etc.
1739. Miller, Gard. Dict., II. s.v., The best Sort of Tan for Hotbeds, is, that which is ground of a midling Size, neither too small nor too large.
1766. Ann. Reg., 108. A melon raised … in Southwark upon tan was sold in Covent-garden Market.
1812. New Botanic Gard., I. 54. A thin covering of tan or some other substance.
1849. Longf., Kavanagh, xix. 101. Circus, with its tan and tinsel.
1887. Morn. Post, 8 July (Sport, Notes). After the usual canter [she] galloped him a mile and a quarter on the tan.
2. The astringent principle contained in oak-bark, etc.; tannin; also the solution of this, tan-liquor, ‘ooze.’
1800. Henry, Epit. Chem. (1808), 289. Until very lately, tan had been known only as a production of nature. Ibid. (1810) Elem. Chem. (1826), II. 284. Tan exists abundantly in the bark of the oak, the willow, &c., and in the gall-nut.
1866. Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. xxiv. 612. To preserve them, the nets were soaked in tan.
II. 3. The brown color of tan; tawny.
1888. Daily News, 17 July, 5/8. Simplicity is the word of command as regards outlines, and tan is the special colour of this season.
1888. Lady, 25 Oct., 378/1. [Gloves] in the beautiful shades of brown, chocolate, oak, tans, and black.
b. esp. The bronzed tint imparted to the skin by exposure to the sun or the weather.
1827. Clare, Sheph. Cal., 48. And scare the tan from summer cheek.
1851. Hawthorne, Ho. Sev. Gables, v. The clear shade of tan, and the half-a-dozen freckles.
1885. L’pool Daily Post, 7 May, 5/3. With the tan of a southern sun upon his face.
4. pl. [ellipt. use of the adj.] Articles of dress, etc., of a tan color; esp. tan shoes or boots.
1902. Daily Chron., 17 Sept., 5/2. Please say … where these boots can be bought. I always buy my tans in the cheapest market. Ibid. (1904), 2 July, 8/5. Tans are in far greater demand than has been known for years.
B. adj. Of the color of tan or of tanned leather; of a yellowish or reddish brown; tawny.
1665. Wood, Life, 6 May (O.H.S.), II. 35. A pair of tan leather gloves.
1845. Disraeli, Sybil, IV. vii. Beautiful black and tan spaniels.
1887. W. S. Gilbert, Ruddigore. I kept guinea pigs … and a small black and tan [dog].
1896. Monthly Packet Christm., No. 61. The daintiest of tan shoes.
1896. Edith Thompson, ibid., 98. Too well-fitting tan boots … only adapted to mountain excursions of the picnic order.
1908. Betw. Trent & Ancholme, 218. The white or tan sails pass by.
C. attrib. and Comb.
1. from the sb. (in senses 1, 1 b) [some perhaps partly from the verb-stem: cf. TAN-HOUSE], as tan-color, -liquor, -mill; tan-burning, -strewn, -trodden adjs.; tan-ball: see quot.; tan-bark, = sense 1; tan-bath, a bath containing an infusion of oak-bark in water (Cent. Dict., 1891); tan-bay, the loblolly bay, Gordonia Lasianthus (ibid.); tan-bed, a hot-bed made of spent tan; a bark-bed; tan-extractor, a device for extracting the tannic acid and astringent principles from bark (Knight, Dict. Mech., 1877); tan-fat, = TAN-VAT; tan-fork, a gardener’s hand-fork for lifting tan; tan-gallop, = tan-ride; tan-loft, the loft of a tan-house; tan-ooze, -pickle, the liquor of a tan-vat: = OOZE sb.1 2; tan-pit, (a) = TAN-VAT; (b) in gardening, a tan-bed; tan-press, a machine for expressing moisture from the spent tan (Cent. Dict.); tan-ride, a riding-track covered with tan; cf. RIDE sb.1 2 a; tan-spud, a curved chisel for peeling the bark from oak or other trees; a peeler; tan-stove, a bark-stove; also, a hot-house with a bark-bed; † tan-tub, = TAN-VAT; tan-turf, spent tan pressed into bricks for fuel; = tanners’ turf (TANNER1 b); tan-work, -yard, a place where tanning is carried on; a tannery.
1882. Ogilvie (Annandale), *Tan-balls, the spent bark of the tanner’s yard pressed into balls or lumps, which harden on drying and serve for fuel.
1799. W. Tooke, View Russian Emp., I. I. i. 34. The *tanbark-tree … and many others.
1891. Cent. Dict., Tan-bark.
1903. Smart Set, I. 140/1. She had ridden her first horse over the tanbark of Durland’s.
1739. Miller, Gard. Dict., II. s.v., There are some Persons who make their *Tan-beds much wider than what is here mentioned.
1812. New Botanic Gard., I. 8. The pots should be plunged into a tan-bed.
1882. Paton, in Encycl. Brit., XIV. 382/2. ‘Spent tan,’ usually to be burned in a special form of *tan-burning furnace for raising steam.
1811. Self Instructor, 539. Dark browns, minims, and *tan-colours.
1859. Thompson, Gard. Assist., 124. *Tan-fork.
1856. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Sports, II. I. x. § 2. 357/2. A *tan-gallop … made permanently on a course three-quarters of a mile in circumference.
1882. Paton, in Encycl. Brit., XIV. 382/2. One of the commonest plans for ascertaining the strength of the *tan liquor technically called ooze, or wooze, is by means of a kind of hydrometer called a barkometer.
1852. Hanna, Chalmers, IV. xxi. 404. Dr. Chalmers opened the *tan-loft for public worship.
1604. E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, IV. xii. 243. Instruments, which beat this stone like vnto *tanne milles.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 1195. (Sugar) The first machines employed to squeeze the canes, were mills … somewhat like tan-mills.
1901. F. Adams, in N. & Q., 9th Ser. VII. 412/1. *‘Tan ouse,’ tanner’s ouse, or oak bark, an infusion of which is employed for tanning hides.
1820. T. Mitchell, Aristoph., I. 259. On him fell *tan pickle, and nectar on you.
a. 1859. Macaulay, Hist. Eng. (1861), V. 181. The drink tasted like tanpickle.
1611. Cotgr., Coudroir, a Tanfat, or *Tanpit.
1707. Mortimer, Husb., I. 123. What improves it to that Value is the emptying of the Town Tann-pits on it.
1810. Boswell, Edinburgh, Poet. Wks. (1871), 48. Neighbouring tan-pits scent the passing gales.
1858. Glenny, Gard. Every-day Bk., 34/1. Although a tan-pit is not absolutely necessary to make a hot-house, it is necessary to have bottom-heat at command.
1863. Lawrence, Border & Bast., iv. 70. In the centre is a large fountain of white marble, round which is a broad *tan-ride.
1884. Yates, Recoll., II. ii. 81. A tan-ride furnished with various obstacles for leaping experiments.
1828. Webster, *Tan-spud,… *Tan-stove.
1904. Blackw. Mag., June, 796. Chilcote glanced over the *tan-strewn ride.
1887. J. Ashby Sterry, Lazy Minstrel (1892), 42. What studies of man and of woman and horse Here pass up and down on the *tan-trodden course!
1586. J. Davis, Voy. (Hakl. Soc.), 17. They found bags of trayne oyle,… seale skinnes in *tan tubs, with many other such trifles.
1799. Hull Advertiser, 2 March, 2/1. Tan-yard, bark-mill,… tan-tubs, vats and materials.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, II. 87/2. *Tan-turf is oak bark made into turf after its virtues have been exhausted in the tan-pits.
1822. J. Flint, Lett. Amer., 125. An iron foundery … a *tan-work, a glass-house.
1711. Customs Notice, in Lond. Gaz., No. 4862/4. Any Tan-house, *Tan-yard, Work-house.
1777. J. Adams, in Fam. Lett. (1876), 241. A mill to grind bark for the tanyard.
2. adjs. from A. 3, or B, chiefly parasynthetic, as tan-colored, -faced, -sailed, -skinned, -tinted.
1630. J. Taylor (Water P.), Proclamation, Wks. II. 252/2. The Sunburnt tanskind Indians.
1685. Lond. Gaz., No. 2037/4. A black-brown Gelding … Tan mouth’d.
1861. L. L. Noble, Icebergs, 63. Scudding under their tan-colored canvas.
1865. Walt Whitman (title), O Tan-faced Prairie Boy.
1869. Routledge’s Ev. Boy’s Ann., 454. A tan-faced digger.
1888. Dict. Nat. Biog., XIII. 142/2. The tan-sailed barges sailing through the flats.
1892. Daily News, 29 March, 2/4. An Eton jacket of the tan-tinted cloth, with sleeves to match.
