12:51 Feb 12 

Many thanks for your contributions!

15:24 Feb 11 

Thanks, that's very interesting - I was drawing a complete blank on the word.

Tawny/sun-tanned certainly seems plausible.

11:45 Feb 11 

'quarterly tenny and argent' — that's interesting, clearly part of the blazon, which is presumably alternating quarters of 'tawny' and silver; fancy it's having got into popular parlance in that way!

10:28 Feb 11 

I didn't know about Dundee United! Tenny/tawny is, in any case, etymologically related to tanning, it seems (from OF tane). Noah Webster's 1828 definition of tawny is worth quoting:
"Of a yellowish dark color, like things tanned, or persons who are sun-burnt; as a tawny Moor or Spaniard; the tawny sons of Numidia; the tawny lion."
http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definitions/tawny?...

Tennyson is derived untimately from Dionysius via Denis. Saint Denis is known as San Dionisio in Spanish. He it was who supposedly walked two leagues with his severed head, giving rise to the immortal remark of Mme du Deffand: "Il n'y a que le premier pas qui coûte".

10:05 Feb 11 

It's a variant of tawny as a adjective (hence orangish brown) (The Dundee United football teams (also known as the Tangerines) field is known as the quarterly tenny and argent. It is also short for Tennyson which was once a popular name (Variant of Dennison)