wan [OE] This is an example of a colour word that has reversed in meaning, like *auburn. In Old English wan meant ‘dark, black’, a sense that continued through Middle English. But in Old English it could also mean ‘having an unhealthy colour’ and by c.1250 this could mean ‘pale from illness, sickly’, and this notion of unhealthiness could have provided the connection with ‘pale’. By Late Middle English you could be ‘pale and wan’.