adjective
- (chiefly of horses) of the color sorrel, chestnut, or bay, sprinkled with gray or white.
- prepared from leather of this color.
noun
- a horse or other animal with a roan coat.
- a roan color.
- a soft, flexible sheepskin leather, used in bookbinding, often made to imitate morocco.
adjective
- (of a horse) having a bay (red roan), chestnut (strawberry roan), or black (blue roan) coat sprinkled with white hairs
noun
- a horse having such a coat
- a soft unsplit sheepskin leather with a close tough grain, used in bookbinding, etc
1520s, from Middle French roan “reddish brown,” perhaps from Spanish roano, from Old Spanish raudano, probably from a Germanic source (cf. Gothic raudan, accusative of rauðs “red”). Chiefly of horses.