Beige is a term used for a range of pale brownish or yellowish colors.
It is variously described as a pale sandy fawn color, a grayish tan, a light-grayish
yellowish brown, or a pale to grayish yellow.
It takes its name from the French word for the color of natural wool.
It has come to be used to describe a variety of light tints chosen for their neutral or
pale warm appearance.
Beige was used as a color term in the modern sense in France beginning approximately 1855-60;
the writer Edmond de Goncourt used it in the novel La Fille Elisa in 1877.
The first recorded use of beige as a color name in English was in 1887.
Beginning in the 1920s, the meaning of beige expanded so that it is now also used not only
for pale yellowish-brown colors, but also for a wide range of pale brown and light brown
shades.
Some of more notable of these tints and shades are shown below.
Beige is notoriously difficult to produce in traditional offset CMYK printing due to
the low levels of inks used on each plate; often it will print in purple or green and
vary within a print run.
Variations of beige Cosmic latte
Cosmic latte is a name assigned in 2002 to the average color of the universe, given by
a team of astronomers from Johns Hopkins University.
Cream
Cream is the color of the cream produced by cattle grazing on natural pasture with plants
rich in yellow carotenoid pigments, some of which are incorporated into the cream, to
give a yellow tone to white.
The first recorded use of cream as a color name in English was in 1590.
Unbleached silk The color unbleached silk is shown at right.
This color is one of the Japanese traditional colors in use since beginning in 660 CE in
the form of various dyes that are used in designing kimonos.
The name of this color in Japanese is shironeri.
Tuscan
Displayed at right is the color Tuscan.
The first recorded use of Tuscan as a color name in English was in 1887.
Buff
Buff is a pale yellow-brown color that got its name from the color of buffed leather.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, buff as a descriptor of a color was first
used in the London Gazette of 1686, describing a uniform to be "A Red Coat with a Buff-colour'd
lining".
Desert sand
The color desert sand is displayed at right.
It 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 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
The color ecru is displayed at right.
Originally in the 19th century and up to at least 1930, the color ecru meant exactly the
same color 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 écru, 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 interior designers a wider palette of colors to choose
from.
Khaki
Displayed at right is the color khaki.
This is the web color called khaki in HTML/CSS.
The color shown at right matches the color designated as khaki 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.
Light French beige Light French beige is the color called beige
on the pourpre.com website, a color list widely popular in France.
French beige At right is displayed the color French beige.
The first recorded use of French beige as a color name in English was in 1927.
The source of this color is the following website: ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Color Names--Color
Sample of French beige Mode beige
Mode beige is a very dark shade of beige.
Two other alternate names for this exact color are drab and sand dune, in use, respectively,
since 1686 and 1925.
The first recorded use of mode beige as a color name in English was in 1928.
The color mode beige is a masterpiece of rebranding—taking the color "drab", a color whose name had become
a synonym for dullness, and remaking it into the exciting, fun color "mode beige".
Beige in nature Fish
Beige catshark Beige in human culture
Beige is often employed as a metaphor for dullness, neutrality or conformity.
For example, on Futurama, the inhabitants of the Neutral Planet declare a "beige alert"
when their population is under threat.
Also, when discussing playing Al Gore on The Late Show with David Letterman, Darrell Hammond
pondered, "How do you spruce up beige?"
Business The Beige Book, more formally called the Summary
of Commentary on Current Economic Conditions, is a report published by the Federal Reserve
Board eight times a year.
Each report is a gathering of "anecdotal information on current economic conditions" by each Federal
Reserve Bank in its district.
Computers Beige tones have so often been used for personal
computer cases and peripherals like mice and monitors that the term beige box has come
to mean an ordinary, run-of-the-mill, generic, unremarkable personal computer.
Entertainment Beige is a house sketch team at the Upright
Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York City.
Ethnography The skin color of lighter-skinned Caucasians
is often described as being beige or peach.
A mixed-race, part black and part white person, often referred to as a mulatto, is also sometimes
described by themselves or others as being colored beige, referring to the darker tones
of beige.
Food Beige is now a common terms for a variety
of unhealthy snack foods, such as cake, biscuits and other savoury goods including chips and
crisps.
Literature Beige Planet Mars is an original New Adventures
novel by Lance Parkin and Mark Clapham featuring the fictional archaeologist Bernice Summerfield.
The New Adventures are a spin-off from the long-running British science fiction television
series Doctor Who.
Sexuality The Beige Room was a popular San Francisco
gay bar located in North Beach at 831 Broadway between Powell and Mason between 1951 and
1958.
Noted drag queen Jose Sarria often performed there.
The Beige Room was “where San Francisco’s drag culture flourished”.
Large Halloween parties were held there with a costume contest.
Sports Beige was the color of the New Zealand Cricket
team from 1981-1989.
Notable sporting teams around the world have adopted beige as their club color.
The Dan O'Connell Cricket Club is the most notable example with the Beige Army gaining
national recognition in Australia for support of the DOCCC.
The National Cricket Team of New Zealand has group of followers known as the Beige Brigade.
See also List of colors
Off-white Drab
References