Dictionary

vegetan en · NOUN

Etymology

Blend of vegetable + tan.

Meanings

1. Vegetable-tanned leather, typically cow skin tanned using plant-derived tannins rather than chemicals.
   • Vegetan is a stiffer leather that takes tooling very well, but it is easily damaged by water without further treatment.
2. A synthetic microfibre, intended to be used as a vegan substitute for leather.
   • Today, its shoes are made from 'vegetan' and chrome-free leather (chrome is usually used in the dyeing process) for the uppers, 2006, "Eco hero: Galahad Clark", Telegraph.co.uk, Sep 12, 2006