Beige ( ) is variously described as a pale

sandy Sandy may refer to: People and fictional characters *Sandy (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname * Sandy (surname), a list of people * Sandy (Iranian music band), Iranian singer, comp ...

fawn A deer (: deer) or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family (biology), family Cervidae (informally the deer family). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac, elk (wapiti), red deer, a ...

color Color (or colour in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, see spelling differences) is the visual perception based on the electromagnetic spectrum. Though co ...

, a grayish tan, a light-grayish yellowish brown, or a pale to grayish yellow. It takes its name from

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

, where the word originally meant natural

wool Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have some properties similar to animal w ...

that has been neither bleached nor dyed, hence also the color of natural wool. The word "beige" has come to be used to describe a variety of light

tint In color theory, a tint is a mixture of a color with white, which increases lightness, while a shade is a mixture with black, which increases darkness. A tone is produced either by mixing a color with gray, or by both tinting and shading. ...

s chosen for their neutral or pale warm appearance. ''Beige'' began to commonly be used as a term for a color in France beginning approximately 1855–1860; the writer

Edmond de Goncourt Edmond Louis Antoine Huot de Goncourt (; 26 May 182216 July 1896) was a French writer, literary critic, art critic, book publisher and the founder of the Académie Goncourt. Biography Goncourt was born in Nancy. His parents, Marc-Pierre Huot ...

used it in the novel ' in 1877. The first recorded use of ''beige'' as a color name in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

was in 1887. Beige is notoriously difficult to produce in traditional offset

CMYK The CMYK color model (also known as process color, or four color) is a subtractive color model, based on the CMY color model, used in color printing, and is also used to describe the printing process itself. The abbreviation ''CMYK'' refers ...

printing because of the low levels of inks used on each plate; often it will print in purple or green and vary within a print run. Beige is also a popular color in clothing, such as for men's

trousers Trousers (British English), slacks, or pants ( American, Canadian and Australian English) are an item of clothing worn from the waist to anywhere between the knees and the ankles, covering both legs separately (rather than with cloth extending ...

, as well as for

interior design Interior design is the art and science of enhancing the interior of a building to achieve a healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environment for the people using the space. With a keen eye for detail and a Creativity, creative flair, an ...

Various beige colors

Cosmic latte

Cosmic latte is a name assigned in 2002 to the average color of the

universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents. It comprises all of existence, any fundamental interaction, physical process and physical constant, and therefore all forms of matter and energy, and the structures they form, from s ...

(derived from a sampling of the

electromagnetic radiation In physics, electromagnetic radiation (EMR) is a self-propagating wave of the electromagnetic field that carries momentum and radiant energy through space. It encompasses a broad spectrum, classified by frequency or its inverse, wavelength ...

from 200,000

galaxies A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, and dark matter bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar Sys ...

), given by a team of

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...

s from

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

Cream

Cream is the color of the

cream Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this proces ...

produced by

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...

grazing on natural

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Types of pasture Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, c ...

with plants rich in yellow

carotenoid Carotenoids () are yellow, orange, and red organic pigments that are produced by plants and algae, as well as several bacteria, archaea, and fungi. Carotenoids give the characteristic color to pumpkins, carrots, parsnips, corn, tomatoes, cana ...

pigments, some of which are incorporated into the cream, to give a

yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In t ...

tone to

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

. The first recorded use of ''cream'' as a color name in

was in 1590.

Unbleached silk

Unbleached silk is one of the Japanese traditional colors in use since beginning in 660 CE in the form of various

dyes Juan de Guillebon, better known by his stage name DyE, is a French musician. He is known for the music video of the single "Fantasy (DyE song), Fantasy" from his first album ''Taki 183 (album), Taki 183''. This video became popular, attracting ...

that are used in designing

kimono The is a traditional Japanese garment and the national dress of Japan. The kimono is a wrapped-front garment with square sleeves and a rectangular body, and is worn Garment collars in hanfu#Youren (right lapel), left side wrapped over ri ...

s. The name of this color in

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

is '.

Tuscan

The first recorded use of Tuscan as a color name in English was in 1887.

Buff

Buff is a pale yellow-

brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing and painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors Orange (colour), orange and black. In the ...

color that got its name from the color of buffed

leather Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning (leather), tanning, or chemical treatment, of animal skins and hides to prevent decay. The most common leathers come from cattle, sheep, goats, equine animals, buffal ...

According to the ''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...

'', buff as a descriptor of a color was first used in the ''

London Gazette London is the capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Western Europe, with a population of 14.9 million. London stands on the River Tha ...

'' of 1686, describing a uniform to be "A Red Coat with a Buff-colour'd lining".

Desert sand

The color desert sand may be regarded as a deep shade of beige. It is a pale tint of a color called ''desert''. The color name "desert" was first used in 1920. In the 1960s, the

American Telephone & Telegraph Company AT&T Corporation, an abbreviation for its former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, was an American telecommunications company that provided voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to busi ...

(AT&T) marketed desert sand–colored telephones for offices and homes. However, they described the color as "beige". It is therefore common for many people to refer to the color desert sand as "beige".

Ecru

Originally in the 19th century and up to at least 1930, the color ecru meant exactly the same color as beige (i.e. the pale cream color shown above as beige), and the word is often used to refer to such fabrics as silk and linen in their unbleached state. Ecru comes from the French word ', which means literally "raw" or "unbleached". Since at least the 1950s, however, the color ecru has been regarded as a different color from beige, presumably in order to allow

ers a wider palette of colors to choose from.

Khaki

Khaki The color khaki (, ) is a light shade of tan (color), tan with a slight yellowish tinge. Khaki has been used by many armies around the world for uniforms and equipment, particularly in arid or desert regions, where it provides camouflage rela ...

was designated in the 1930 book ''A Dictionary of Color'', the standard for color nomenclature before the introduction of computers. The first recorded use of ''khaki'' as a color name in English was in 1848.

French beige

The first recorded use of French beige as a color name in English was in 1927. The

normalized color coordinates Normalization or normalisation refers to a process that makes something more normal or regular. Science * Normalization process theory, a sociological theory of the implementation of new technologies or innovations * Normalization model, used in v ...

for French beige are identical to

café au lait ''Café au lait'' (; ; French for "coffee with milk") is coffee with hot milk added. It differs from white coffee, which is coffee with cold milk or other whiteners added. In France, it is typically served as a breakfast drink, often as a la ...

and Tuscan tan, which were first recorded as color names in English in 1839 and 1926, respectively.

Mode beige

''Mode beige'' is a very dark shade of beige. The first recorded use of ''mode beige'' as a color name in English was in 1928. The normalized color coordinates for mode beige are identical to the color names drab,

sand dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat ...

, and bistre brown, which were first recorded as color names in English, respectively, in 1686, 1925, and 1930.Maerz and Paul ''A Dictionary of Color'' New York: 1930 McGraw-Hill p. 53 Plate 15 Color Sample C9

In nature

Fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

Beige catshark The beige catshark (''Dichichthys bigus''), or beige bristle shark, is a bristle shark of the family Dichichthyidae, The first recorded specimen was a female recorded off the coast of Queensland, Australia around Lord Howe Island. Its length was ...

Mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...

Beige rabbit The Beige rabbit is a rare breed of rabbit. It has dense silky fur which is light-sand in colour right down to the skin, with some slate-blue ticking and shading across the body. It is a recognised breed by the British Rabbit Council, but it is n ...

Metaphor

Beige is sometimes used as a metaphor for something which is bland, boring, conventional, or even sad. In this sense, it is used in contradistinction to more vibrant and exciting (or more individual) colors.

References

External links

{{Color topics