sienna
[see-en-uh]
- a ferruginous earth used as a yellowish-brown pigment (raw sienna) or, after roasting in a furnace, as a reddish-brown pigment (burnt sienna).
- the color of such a pigment.
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Origin of sienna
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for sienna
Contemporary Examples
Also breaking: apparently, Delevingne and Sienna Miller are “schnoystering,” whatever that means.
Donald Sterling’s Former Mistress Makes the “Paparazzi Shield” Chic; Cara Delevingne Has Self-Grooming EyebrowsThe Fashion Beast Team
May 5, 2014
Dr. Sienna helpfully tells him “We see these occasionally in the medical field.”
Fact-Checking Dan Brown’s ‘Inferno’: 10 Mistakes, False Statements, and OversimplificationsNoah Charney
May 20, 2013
They came onto the scene in 2004, on the feet of boho-chic English style icons Sienna Miller and Kate Moss.
Those targeted included Princes William and Harry, as well as senior politicians and the actors Hugh Grant and Sienna Miller.
Actress Sienna Miller described paparazzi spitting at her to provoke a reaction they could photograph.
Historical Examples
He will return about the 10th of October to fetch me, and we all go on to Sienna, to my mother.
The Child of PleasureGabriele D'Annunzio
I have compared it with that which is preserved in the archives of Sienna.
Cosmopolis, CompletePaul Bourget
The filler used should be coloured with burnt umber and sienna.
The Library of Work and Play: Home DecorationCharles Franklin Warner
Sienna, resting on the top and brow of a hill, looks picturesque from below.
Wintering in the RivieraWilliam Miller
The body of S. Catherine of Sienna reposes beneath the high altar.
Rambles in RomeS. Russell Forbes
sienna
- a natural earth containing ferric oxide used as a yellowish-brown pigment when untreated (raw sienna) or a reddish-brown pigment when roasted (burnt sienna)
- the colour of this pigmentSee also burnt sienna
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Word Origin
C18: from Italian terra di Siena earth of Siena
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for sienna
Sienna
city in central Italy, probably from Senones, the name of a Gaulish people who settled there in ancient times. Related: Sienese. The brownish-ochre color (1760) is from Italian terra di Sienna "earth of Siena," where the coloring material first was produced.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper