▪ I. roan, a. and n.1
(rəʊn)
Forms: 6 roen, roone, 6–7 rone, roane, 7– roan.
[a. OF. roan, rouen, F. rouan, = Prov. rouant, It. roano, rovano (Florio), Sp. roano († ruano), Pg. ruão, of unknown origin. The obs. Du. roaensch (Kilian), MLG. rowansk are also from OF.]
A. adj. Of animals: Having a coat in which the prevailing colour is thickly interspersed with some other; esp. bay, sorrel, or chestnut mixed with white or grey. Also absol. as the name of a colour. a. Of horses. (Cf. roaned.)
The prevailing colour is freq. expressed, as black roan, blue roan, red roan, silver roan, strawberry roan.
| 1530 Palsgr. 263/2 Roen colour of an horse, roven. 1538 Leland Itin. (1769) V. 56 Rethelan..cummith of Rethe, that ys to say Roone color or pale redde. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iii. (1586) 116 The best colours..are these, the rone, the white liarde, the bay. 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 120 Giue my Roane horse a drench (sayes hee). 1602 2nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass. ii. v. 92, I rode that same time vpon a Roane gelding. 1664 Butler Hud. ii. i. 694 How shall I answer Hue and Cry, For a Roan-Gelding, twelve hands high? 1707 Lond. Gaz. No. 4325/4 A white roan Mare at present, but when she sheds her Coat a black roan. 1808 Scott Marm. i. v, Proudly his red-roan charger trod. 1863 Sat. Rev. 23 May 687 He is light roan in colour, and has a coach-horse look about him. 1883 Times 28 May 5/3 Mr. John Robinson's silver roan mare Lady Silver. Ibid. 30 May 5/1 The Stand Stud Company's strawberry roan mare British Queen. |
b. Of other animals, esp. as the distinctive name of a species of antelope, Hippotragus equinus.
| 1839 W. C. Harris Wild Sports S. Africa xxii. 194 We descended into a valley, bent upon the destruction of a roan antelope. 1850 R. G. Cumming Hunter's Life S. Afr. (1902) 83/1, I perceived a pair of the rare and beautiful roan antelope or bastard gemsbok warily approaching the fountain. 1879 R. Jefferies Wild Life (1908) 75 Broad green meads, dotted with roan-and-white cattle. 1885 Athenæum 2 May 570/1 A female roan kangaroo (Macropus erubescens). 1895 J. G. Millais Breath fr. Veldt (1899) 187 The roan antelope (Hippotragus equinus) at one time ranged from Cape Colony up to Central Africa. 1970 Daily Nation (Nairobi) 16 Jan. 13/1 Going south along the lake is the Lambwe Valley Game Reserve, small and still undeveloped, but possessing the rare Roan Antelope. |
c. transf. as a colour of cloth. rare.
| 1861 Reade Cloister & H. lv, Her farthingale and hose [were] of the same material, but a glossy roan, or claret colour. |
B. n.1
1. a. A horse of a roan colour.
| 1580 Blundevil Horsemanship v. xviii. 8 b, The other mad Horse was a Roane of Maister Ashleis. 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, ii. iii. 72 What Horse? A Roane,..is it not? 1653 A. Wilson Inconstant Ladie ii. iv, Sweet rone, Deare, beast, looke to thy feet. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Suppl. s.v., When this party-coloured coat is accompanied with a black head and black extremities, he is called a roan with a black-a-moor's head. 1842 Tennyson Walking to Mail 104 As quaint a four-in-hand As you shall see—three pyebalds and a roan. 1877 G. Nevile Horses & Riding xv. 106 Black and bay-roans mean roan horses with black or bay heads and legs. |
b. A roan cow, ox, or bull.
| 17.. Ramsay Wyfe of Auchtermuchty ix, Than by came an illwilly roan. 1789 Mrs. Piozzi Jrnl. France I. 148 The Carinthian bulls..are almost all blue roans. 1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer (1891) 121 He's got a real turn for the roans and reds. |
c. A roan antelope.
| 1895 Millais Breath fr. Veldt (1899) 236 A pan under the mountain where many roans,..and some giraffes, drank. 1958 L. van der Post Lost World of Kalahari vi. 111 It's unbelievable! They're there in thousands! Zebra, wildebeest, roan! 1978 Times 23 Nov. 13/9 Extensive softwood planting in the [Kenyan] plains is displacing much of its game, such as roan and sable. |
† 2. red roan: (see quot.). Obs.
| 1707 Mortimer Husb. (1721) I. 134 Barley is ripe, when the red Roan, as they call it, is off (that is a reddish kind of Colour that is on the Ear). |
3. A fashion shade: cf. sense A. c.
| 1960 [see grège a. and n.]. |
▪ II. roan, n.2
(rəʊn)
Also 5 royne, 6 rone.
[Of obscure origin; perhaps the place-name, as in n.3 The gap in the history of the word is remarkable.]
† 1. roan skin, some kind of skin or leather. Also roan lanyar(d), a thong made of this. Obs.
| c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. viii. 4802 He gert brynge hym a litil cofyne; A royne [v.r. rone] skyn tuk he þar of syne, And schare a thwaynge at al laysere [Wemyss A royne lanȝhare þarof to scheire]. 1572 in Feuillerat Revels Q. Eliz. (1908) 177 For one Rone skin. 1583 Bk. of Rates E j b, Roan skinnes the dosen, xxx.k. Ibid. E v b, Skinnes for Lether, look Basill, Buffe; for Cushions [look] portingale, Red hides, Roan, Salt spanish, Spruce and Swan skinnes. |
2. A soft flexible leather made of sheepskin, used in bookbinding as a substitute for morocco.
| 1818 Art Bk.-binding 27 The back must have a piece of blue or red roan, thinly pared, pasted on. 1852 C. Morfit Tanning & Currying (1853) 365 Roan is sheep-skin Morocco tanned with sumach, but wanting the grained appearance of true Morocco. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 90 Roans are prepared much like the straight-grained morocco, but they..are much thinner. |
| Comb. 1845 Penny Cycl. Suppl. I. 221/1 ‘Roan-bound’ books..are often sprinkled with colour by the bookbinders after the leather has been attached to the boards. |
▪ III. † roan, n.3 Obs.
Also 5 ron.
[f. Roan, an old form of the place-name Rouen. Cf. Sp. ruan, ‘fine Linnen Cloath made at Roan in France’ (Stevens, 1706).]
a. The place-name used attrib. to designate the linen cloth made there. b. A make of linen from Rouen.
| a. 1483 Cath. Angl. 311/2 Ron, rothomagus, rothomagensis. 1565 Cooper Thesaurus, Vestis Rotomagensis, Roan clothe. |
| b. 1617 Moryson Itin. iii. 134 These carry out of France great quantity of Linnen cloth, which we call white Roanes. 1696 J. F. Merch. Wareho. laid open 35, I..shall come to Roans and Rasterns, but because there is not any allowed to come I shall pass it by. |
▪ IV. roan, n.4 dial.
Also 7–9 rone.
[var. of rawn or rown.]
The roe of a fish.
| 1617 Moryson Itin. iii. 115 Botargo (..the rone of a fish). c 1700 Kennett in MS. Lansd. 1033 lf. 327 b, Rone, the row in a female fish, which in males is calld the Milt. 1765 Ann. Reg. 138 An uncommon fish..; in the belly were two roes, or roans, each nine feet long. 1869–89 in northern dial. glossaries (Cumb., Lanc., Linc.). |
b. roan-fleuk, the turbot (cf. rawn-fleuk).
| 1882 Day Fishes Grt. Brit. & Irel. II. 12. |
▪ V. roan
variant of rone n., rowan.