sienna

Etymology

It is from English a shortening of the earlier terra sienna,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} itself from Italian terra di Siena (“earth of Siena”),^[4][2][7] also spelled terra di Sienna,^[8][3][6] after the city of Siena in Tuscany, where the colouring matter was probably first produced.^[6][8] The OED also gives French terre de Sienne.^[4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged analyses the Italian phrase as terra (“earth”), di (“of”) and the name of the city.^[2] The OED treats the word as partly from the name of the city and partly a clipping of terra sienna,^[4] and Etymonline traces the name Siena itself, probably, to the Senones, a Gaulish people who settled there.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

As terra-sienna, a very rich reddish brown: 1760, in a letter of William Shenstone.^[4][6][8] The short form, for the pigment, is first recorded in 1787, in W. Williams's Essay on the Mechanic of Oil Colours.^[4][6][2]

Semantic evolution

The name of the earth passed to the colour made from it, a yellowish brown when raw and a rich reddish brown when roasted as burnt sienna.^[9][10][8] The OED's first quotation for the colour sense, with compounds such as sienna-brown, is from 1853,^[4] although the 1989 edition of the OED had dated it to 1760.^[11] From 1774 the name of the city also served for a reddish mottled marble from the neighbourhood of Siena, at first spelled Syenna.^[4] Etymonline notes that the pigment is used in both oil and watercolour painting.^[8]

Timeline

• 1760 – terra-sienna, a rich reddish brown.^[4][6][8]
• 1774 – Siena marble, a reddish mottled stone.^[4]
• 1787 – sienna, the earth used as a pigment.^{[4][6][2][12]}
• 1853 – the colour of this pigment, also in compounds such as sienna-brown.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A natural earth containing ferric oxide, used as a pigment: yellowish brown when raw (raw sienna) and reddish brown when roasted (burnt sienna).^[10][2][4]
2. The colour of this pigment.^[10][4]
3. A reddish mottled marble from the neighbourhood of Siena, usually spelled Siena.^[4][9]

Word family

• burnt sienna
• raw sienna

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)