Tan
- HEX
- #D2B48C
- RGB
- 210 180 140
- HSL
- 34° 44% 69%
- CMYK
- 0 14 33 18
Tan or Khaki?
Warmer and softer than khaki, like light leather.
Language
Tan comes from tanning: soaking hides in oak bark, whose tannins turn skin into leather and stain it brown. Tan and tannin share the root. Its neighbor buff is short for buffalo: soldiers wore coats of oiled buff leather, and skin of that color gave us 'in the buff'.
Culture
Pale skin long meant status: until the mid-1800s a tan marked someone who worked in the fields. Once factory workers went pale, a tan began to signal leisure, and in the 1920s suntans came into fashion, with Coco Chanel usually getting the credit.
Kin
- Camel: Another warm brown named after what coats are made of
- Sepia: Another brown named after the substance that made it
In paintings
- The Birth of Venus, Sandro Botticelli
- Girl with a Pearl Earring, Johannes Vermeer
- Rouen Cathedral (series), Claude Monet
- Rouen Cathedral (series), Claude Monet
Sources
- Etymonline, 'tan', 'tannin'
- Pastoureau, Black: The History of a Color (2008)
- St Clair, The Secret Lives of Colour (2016)
- Etymonline, 'buff'
Hex values are screen approximations. Every page lists its sources.