Drab (color)

Last updated May 22, 2024

Drab is a dull, light-brown color.^[1] It originally took its name from a fabric of the same color made of undyed, homespun wool. The word was first used in English in 1686.^[2] It probably originated from the Old French word drap, which meant cloth.^[1]

Drab (cloth)

Drab was a term used for cloths with specific colors such as dull browns, yellowish or gray. The Drab of heavy woolen was produced in Yorkshire, England. It was a thick, sturdy structure used for overcoating.^[6]^[7]

In military uniforms

Several shades of drab have been used for military uniforms, including the above-mentioned light-brown color. The greenish shades of drab, known as olive drab, were used as the colors of the U.S. Army uniforms and equipment during World War II.

Related Research Articles

Navy blue is a dark shade of the color blue.

Beige 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 French, where the word originally meant natural wool that has been neither bleached nor dyed, hence also the color of natural wool. A more than 300 year old antecessor of the word "beige" can be found in the surname of Louis de Béchameil and the French name for Béchamel sauce.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bistre</span> Dark brown color

Bistre is a pigment made from soot. Historically, beechwood was burned to produce the soot, which was boiled and diluted with water. Many Old Masters used bistre as the ink for their wash paintings.^[1] Bistre's appearance is generally of a dark grayish brown, with a yellowish cast.

Olive is a dark yellowish-green color, like that of unripe or green olives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Copper (color)</span> Orange brown color

Copper is a reddish brown color that resembles the metal copper.

Mahogany is a reddish-brown color. It is approximately the color of the wood mahogany. However, the wood itself, like most woods, is not uniformly the same color and is not recognized as a color by most.

Taupe is a dark gray-brown color. The word derives from the French noun taupe meaning "mole". The name originally referred only to the average color of the French mole, but beginning in the 1940s, its usage expanded to encompass a wider range of shades.

In optics, orange has a wavelength between approximately 585 and 620 nm and a hue of 30° in HSV color space. In the RGB color space it is a secondary color numerically halfway between gamma-compressed red and yellow, as can be seen in the RGB color wheel. The complementary color of orange is azure. Orange pigments are largely in the ochre or cadmium families, and absorb mostly blue light.

Varieties of the color green may differ in hue, chroma or lightness, or in two or three of these qualities. Variations in value are also called tints and shades, a tint being a green or other hue mixed with white, a shade being mixed with black. A large selection of these various colors is shown below.

Varieties of the color red may differ in hue, chroma or lightness, or in two or three of these qualities. Variations in value are also called tints and shades, a tint being a red or other hue mixed with white, a shade being mixed with black. A large selection of these various colors are shown below.

Desert sand is a very light and very weakly saturated reddish yellow colour which corresponds specifically to the coloration of sand. It may also be regarded as a deep tone of beige.

Livid is a medium bluish-gray color. This color name comes from the Latin color term lividus meaning "'a dull leaden-blue color', and also used to describe the color of contused flesh, leading to the English expression 'black and blue'". The first recorded use of livid as a color name in English was in 1622.

Varieties of the color yellow may differ in hue, chroma or lightness, or in two or three of these qualities. Variations in value are also called tints and shades, a tint being a yellow or other hue mixed with white, a shade being mixed with black. A large selection of these various colors is shown below.

Varieties of the color blue may differ in hue, chroma, or lightness, or in two or three of these qualities. Variations in value are also called tints and shades, a tint being a blue or other hue mixed with white, a shade being mixed with black. A large selection of these colors is shown below.

Shades of white are colors that differ only slightly from pure white. Variations of white include what are commonly termed off-white colors, which may be considered part of a neutral color scheme.

Variations of gray or grey include achromatic grayscale shades, which lie exactly between white and black, and nearby colors with low colorfulness. A selection of a number of these various colors is shown below.

The color cyan, a greenish-blue, has notable tints and shades. It is one of the subtractive primary colors along with magenta, and yellow.

There are numerous variations of the color purple, a sampling of which is shown below.

Shades of brown can be produced by combining red, yellow, and black pigments, or by a combination of orange and black—illustrated in the color box. The RGB color model, that generates all colors on computer and television screens, makes brown by combining red and green light at different intensities. Brown color names are often imprecise, and some shades, such as beige, can refer to lighter rather than darker shades of yellow and red. Such colors are less saturated than colors perceived to be orange. Browns are usually described as light or dark, reddish, yellowish, or gray-brown. There are no standardized names for shades of brown; the same shade may have different names on different color lists, and sometimes one name can refer to several very different colors. The X11 color list of web colors has seventeen different shades of brown, but the complete list of browns is much longer.

Shades of chartreuse are listed below. Chartreuse is a color between yellow and green, so named because of its resemblance to the color of the French liqueur green chartreuse.

References

1 2 Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (5th ed.). Oxford University Press. 1982.
↑ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 194
↑ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 204; Color Sample of Sand Dune: Page 47 Plate 14 Color Sample B5
↑ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 199
↑ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York: 1930 McGraw-Hill Page 53 Plate 15 Color Sample C9
↑ Fairchild's dictionary of textiles. New York: Fairchild Publications. 1959. p. 189.
↑ ltd, Chambers W. and R. (1867). Chambers's etymological dictionary of the English language, ed. by J. Donald. p. 140.

External links

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[SOED-1] 1 2 Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (5th ed.). Oxford University Press. 1982.

[2] Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 194

[3] Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 204; Color Sample of Sand Dune: Page 47 Plate 14 Color Sample B5

[4] Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 199

[5] Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York: 1930 McGraw-Hill Page 53 Plate 15 Color Sample C9

[6] Fairchild's dictionary of textiles. New York: Fairchild Publications. 1959. p. 189.

[7] td, Chambers W. and R. (1867). Chambers's etymological dictionary of the English language, ed. by J. Donald. p. 140.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]