Khaki is a color, a light shade of yellow-green.
Khaki is a loanword incorporated from Hindustani ख़ाकी and is originally derived
from the Persian: خاکی [xɒːˈkiː], which came to English from British India via
the British Indian Army.
Khaki has been used by many armies around the world for uniforms, including camouflage.
It has been used as a color name in English since 1848 when it was first introduced as
a military uniform, and was called both drab and khaki - khaki being a translation of the
English drab light-brown color.
A khaki uniform is often referred to as khakis.
In Western fashion, it is a standard color for smart casual dress trousers for civilians,
which are also often called khakis.
Origin Khaki was first worn in the Corps of Guides
that was raised in December 1846 as the brain-child of Sir Henry Lawrence Resident at Lahore,
and Agent to the Governor-General for the North-West Frontier.
Lawrence chose as its commandant Sir Harry Lumsden supported by William Stephen Raikes
Hodson as Second-in-Command to begin the process of raising the Corps of Guides for frontier
service from British Indian recruits at Peshawar.
Initially the border troops were dressed in their native costume, which consisted of a
smock and white pajama trousers made of a coarse home-spun cotton, and a cotton turban,
supplemented by a leather or padded cotton jacket for cold weather.
For the first year no attempt was made at uniformity.
Subsequently in 1848 Lumsden and Hodson decided to introduce a drab uniform which Hodson commissioned
his brother in England to send them - as recorded in Hodson's book of published letters: "Twelve
Years of a Soldier's Life in India".
It was only at a later date, when supplies of drab material was unavailable, did they
improvise by dying material locally with a dye prepared from the native mazari palm.
Some believe the gray drab/khaki color it produced was used historically by Afghan tribals
for camouflaging themselves.
The mazari could not, however, dye leather jackets and an alternative was sought: Cloth
was dyed in mulberry juice which gave a yellowish drab shade.
Subsequently all regiments, whether British or Indian, serving in the region had adopted
khaki uniforms for active service and summer dress.
The original khaki fabric was a closely twilled cloth of linen or cotton.
Military use
Khaki-colored uniforms were used officially by British troops for the first time during
the Abyssinian campaign of 1867–68, when Indian troops traveled to Ethiopia under the
command of general Sir Robert Napier to release some British captives and to "persuade the
Abyssinian King Theodore, forcibly if necessary, to mend his ways".
Subsequently, the British Army adopted khaki for colonial campaign dress and it was used
in the Mahdist War and Second Boer War.
During the Second Boer War, the British forces became known as Khakis because of their uniforms.
After victory in the war the government called an election, which became known as the khaki
election, a term used subsequently for elections called to exploit public approval of governments
immediately after victories.
The United States Army adopted khaki during the Spanish American War.
The United States Navy and United States Marine Corps followed suit.
When khaki was adopted for the continental British Service Dress in 1902, the shade chosen
had a clearly darker and more green hue.
This color was adopted with minor variations by all the British Empire Armies and the US
expeditionary force of World War I, in the latter under the name olive drab.
This shade of brown-green remained in use by many countries throughout the two World
Wars.
Khaki was devised to protect soldiers against the dangers of the industrialized battlefield,
where the traditional bright colors and elaborate costumes made them vulnerable to attack.
A response to surveillance technologies and smokeless guns, khaki could camouflage soldiers
in the field of battle.
During the second half of the WWII, American olive drab became distinctly more green, known
as olive green.
Most of the countries that participated in NATO, adopted the US military style and with
it the olive green color.
This color continued to be called khaki in many European countries.
In France for example the term passed in the general language for a green shade of olive
color.
The older yellow-brown used in WWI was called in France moutarde instead.
Use in civilian clothing The trousers known as "khakis", which became
popular following World War II, were initially military-issue khaki twill used in uniforms
and were invariably khaki in color.
Today, the term can refer to the fabric and style of trousers based on this older model,
also called "chinos", rather than their color.
Tones of khaki Light khaki
At right is displayed the color light khaki.
It corresponds to Khaki in the X11 color names.
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.
Dark khaki At right is displayed the web color dark khaki.
It corresponds to Dark Khaki in the X11 color names.
See also Khaki election
Khaki University Khaki drill
Chino cloth References
External links