beige

Beige is a very pale yellowish-cream color.

The term originates from beige cloth, a cotton fabric left in its natural color. It has since come to be used for a range of light tints chosen for their neutral or cool appearance.

Beginning in the 1920s, the meaning of the term beige expanded to the point where it is now also used for a wide range of pale brown shades, some of more notable of which are shown below.

Beige

Beige
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#F5F5DC
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(245, 245, 220)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(60°, 10%, 96%)
Source		X11
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

The color beige is displayed at right.

The first recorded use of beige as a color name in English was in 1887. It has recently been used as slang. To say something is beige means being boring or dull. ^[1]

Cosmic Latte

Cosmic Latte
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#FFF8E7
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(255, 248, 231)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(40°, 94%, 90%)
Source		Internet
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Cosmic latte is a name assigned in 2002 to the average color of the universe (derived from a sampling of the electromagnetic radiation from 200,000 galaxies), given by a team of astronomers from Johns Hopkins University.

Beige and Desert Sand

Desert Sand
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#EDC9AF
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(237, 201, 175)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(19°, 26%, 92[2]%)
Source		Crayola
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

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.^[3]

A "beige" AT&T telephone.

In the 1960s the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (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".

Beige and Ecru

Look up ecru in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Ecru
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#C2B280
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(194, 178, 128)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(45°, 34%, 76%)
Source		ISCC-NBS
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

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 (i.e. the pale cream color shown above as beige),^[4] 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.^[5]

French Beige

French Beige
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#A67B5B
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(166, 123, 91)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(40°, 40%, 60%)
Source		ISCC-NBS
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

At right is displayed the color French beige.

It is perhaps the existence of this color that led people to believe that beige is a light brown color instead of the pale cream shown in the color box at the beginning of this article. The first recorded use of French beige as a color name in English was in 1927. ^[6]

The source of this color is the following website: ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Color Names (1955)--Color Sample of French beige (color sample #57)

Mode Beige (Drab)

Mode Beige
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#967117
RGBB	(r, g, b)	(150, 113, 23)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(43°, 85%, 59[7]%)
Source		ISCC-NBS
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

The color mode beige is displayed at right. Mode beige is a very dark shade of beige.

Two other alternate names for this exact color are drab and sand dune ^[8], in use, respectively, since 1686 ^[9] and 1925. ^[10]

The first recorded use of mode beige as a color name in English was in 1928. ^[11]

Colors in the beige range

Related names used for colors in the beige range include cream, buff, ecru, tan, and Khaki. Pale beige tinted with grey or pink is commonly called oyster.

Beige in human culture

Art

• Beige Records is an electronic music recording company and computer programming ensemble founded in 1998 by Joe Beuckman and Paul B. Davis in St. Louis, MO. Beige now includes Cory Arcangel and Joseph Bonn.

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 shades 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, and by extension anything which is generic or run-of-the-mill.

Ethnography

• The skin color of some paler Caucasians may be described as beige or peach.

Fashion

• Beige is a common color of cargo pants (the second most popular after khaki), and is the most popular shade of pantyhose (tights in the UK)^{[citation needed]}.

Film

• Beige has also appeared as the lead character of a filmic serial story by Peninsula SUFM published in installments throughout July and August 2007. It was named the Serial Drama Movie and involved characters such as Red, Blue and Yellow, who were too cool for Beige, and made him feel ostracized.^{[citation needed]}

Language

• In many languages, as in English, the word for beige is an adaptation of the French word.

Music

• My Beige Bear is a song created by Jonathan Coulton. It is found on his eight album: The Aftermath

Sports

• Beige was the color of New Zealand Cricket team from 1984-1989.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• List of colors

References