What is "roan"

Roan \Roan\, n.

1. The color of a roan horse; a roan color.

2. A roan horse.

3. A kind of leather used for slippers, bookbinding, etc., made from sheepskin, tanned with sumac and colored to imitate ungrained morocco.
   --DeColange.

   Roan tree. (Bot.) See Rowan tree.

Roan \Roan\ (r[=o]n), a. [F. rouan; cf. Sp. roano, ruano, It. rovano, roano.]

1. Having a bay, chestnut, brown, or black color, with gray or white thickly interspersed; -- said of a horse.

   Give my roan a drench.
   --Shak.

2. Made of the leather called roan; as, roan binding.

   Roan antelope (Zo["o]l.), a very large South African antelope ( Hippotragus equinus). It has long sharp horns and a stiff bright brown mane. Called also mahnya, equine antelope, and bastard gemsbok.

1520s, from Middle French roan "reddish brown," perhaps from Spanish roano, from Old Spanish raudano, probably from a Germanic source (compare Gothic raudan, accusative of rauðs "red"). Chiefly of horses.

a. 1 Especially of a horse, having a coat of a dark base color with individual white hairs mixed in 2 Made of the leather called roan. n. 1 An animal such as a horse that has a coat of a dark base color with individual white hairs mixed in. 2 The color of such an animal. 3 A kind of leather used for slippers, bookbinding, etc., made from sheepskin, tanned with sumac and colored to imitate ungrained morocco.

1. adj. (used of especially horses) having a brownish coat thickly sprinkled with white or gray; "a roan horse"

2. n. a soft sheepskin leather that is colored and finished to resemble morocco; used in bookbinding

3. horse having a roan coat

Roan is a coat color found in many animals, including horses, cattle and dogs. It is defined generally as an even mixture of white and pigmented hairs that do not "gray out" or fade as the animal ages. There are a variety of genetic conditions which produce the colors described as "roan" in various species.

Roan may refer to:

• a roan, a valley that curves upward.
• Battle of Roan's Tan Yard, an action during the American Civil War
• John Roan School, a comprehensive secondary school in Blackheath, South-East London
  • John Roan, its founder
• Roan (color), a type of coat color in animals of intermixed white and darker-colored hairs
  • Roan (horse), the coat color in horses
  • Varnish roan, a leopard-complex horse coat color that looks similar to roan
• Roan Antelope, an African savanna antelope
• Roan (name), a personal name and surname
• The Secret of Roan Inish, an independent film directed by John Sayles, released widely in 1994
• USS Charles H. Roan (DD-853) (1946–1973), a Gearing-class destroyer of the United States Navy
• "Strawberry Roan", a song about a horse of that color, by Marty Robbins

Roan is a horse coat color pattern characterized by an even mixture of colored and white hairs on the body, while the head and " points"—lower legs, mane and tail—are mostly solid-colored. Horses with roan coats have white hairs evenly intermingled throughout any other color. The head, legs, mane and tail have fewer scattered white hairs or none at all. The roan pattern is dominantly-inherited, and is found in many horse breeds. While the specific mutation responsible for roan has not been exactly identified, a DNA test can determine zygosity for roan in several breeds. True roan is always present at birth, though it may be hard to see until after the foal coat sheds out. The coat may lighten or darken from winter to summer, but unlike the gray coat color, which also begins with intermixed white and colored hairs, roans do not become progressively lighter in color as they age. The silvering effect of mixed white and colored hairs can create coats that look bluish or pinkish.

Roan is a Frisian given name. It is sometimes used also in other languages such as English, where it can be also an alternate form of Rowan. It can be also a surname. Variants of the name include Ronne. It comes from Proto-Germanic *hrabanaz ( Old High German hraban) meaning " raven".