tan
Word family
Synonym discussion
Sense: verb/1
The four words all relate to sun exposure but describe different processes and results. 'Tan' is the neutral, everyday verb for skin becoming darker in the sun (e.g., 'I tan easily'). 'Bronze' is more admiring and usually describes the result rather than the process — you might say 'her skin bronzed beautifully' but not 'I went to bronze at the beach'. 'Sunbathe' focuses on the activity of lying in the sun itself rather than the colour change — you sunbathe whether or not you actually tan. 'Burn' describes the negative result: skin turning red and painful from too much sun (e.g., 'fair-skinned people burn instead of tanning'). Learners often confuse 'tan' with 'sunbathe' — saying 'I tanned by the pool' (slightly odd; it sounds like watching your skin change colour) versus 'I sunbathed by the pool' (natural). Use 'tan' when the focus is the colour change; use 'sunbathe' when the focus is the relaxing activity.
Common collocations
Etymology
The English word 'tan' entered the language from Old French 'tanner', which came from Medieval Latin 'tannare'. The original meaning — treating animal skins to make leather — is the older sense, dating back to the medieval tanning industry. The sun-tan meaning (and the colour sense) developed much later, around the 18th–19th centuries, when pale skin stopped being fashionable and people began seeking sun exposure for a darker complexion. The mathematical abbreviation 'tan' for 'tangent' comes from a separate Latin root, 'tangere' (to touch), first abbreviated this way in the 16th century.