Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A special clay containing iron and manganese oxides, used as a pigment for oil and watercolor painting.
  • noun Raw sienna.
  • noun Burnt sienna.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A ferruginous ocherous earth, fine and smooth, used as a pigment in both oil and water-color painting.
  • noun The color of sienna pigment.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Chem.) Clay that is colored red or brown by the oxides of iron or manganese, and used as a pigment. It is used either in the raw state or burnt.
  • noun sienna made of a much redder color by the action of fire.
  • noun sienna in its natural state, of a transparent yellowish brown color.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a form of clay containing iron and manganese.
  • noun a pigment with a reddish-brown colour.
  • noun a light reddish-brown colour.
  • adjective having a reddish-brown colour.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an earth color containing ferric oxides; used as a pigment

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Short for terra-sienna, from Italian terra di Sienna, earth of Siena, after Siena.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Italian terra di Sienna, "earth of Siena", Siena being the most notable Renaissance location of the clay

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