The color khaki (, ) is a light shade of 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 relative to sandy or dusty terrain. It has been used as a color name in English since 1848 when it was introduced as a military uniform.[Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 197; Color Sample of Khaki: Page 49 Plate 13 Color Sample J7] In Western fashion, it is a standard color for smart casual dress trousers for civilians, which are also often called khakis.
In British English and some other Commonwealth usage, khaki may also refer to a shade of green known as olive drab.
Etymology
Khaki is a
loanword from
Urdu 'soil-colored', which in turn comes from
Persian language khāk 'soil' + ی (adjectival attributive suffix); it came into English via the British Indian Army.
[ Dictionary Meaning: Khaki; TheFreeDictionary; Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus, and Encyclopedia]
Origin
Khaki was first worn as a uniform in the Corps of Guides that was raised in December 1846 by Henry Lawrence (1806–1857),
agent to the Governor-General for the North-West Frontier and stationed in
Lahore. 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. In 1848, a khaki uniform was introduced.
["Khaki Uniform 1848–49: First Introduction by Lumsden and Hodson", Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, 82 (Winter 2004) pp 341–347] Subsequently, all regiments serving in the region, whether British or Indian, had adopted khaki uniforms for active service and summer dress. The original khaki fabric was a closely twilled cloth of
linen or
cotton. For example, European artillery regiments serving in Madras Presidency discontinued white summer clothing and adopted
khakee (
sic), on 26 June 1858.
Military use
The impracticality of traditional bright colors such as the red coat, especially for skirmishing, was recognised early in the 19th century.
["...A red-coat on one of these rocks will only be a mark for these rebels."][ "...scarlet is unmilitary, first, because it is tawdry ; and secondly, as rendering the soldier, when isolated, an easier mark than a less glaring colour." (1846)] A response to improved technologies such as aerial surveillance and
smokeless powder, khaki could camouflage soldiers in the field of battle.
Khaki-colored uniforms were used officially by British troops for the first time during the 1868 Expedition to Abyssinia, when Indian troops traveled to Ethiopia.[Byron Farwell, Armies of the Raj, 1989, page 75.] Subsequently, the British Army adopted khaki for colonial campaign dress and it was used in the Mahdist War (1884–89) and Second Boer War (1899–1902). These uniforms became known as khaki drill, versions of which are still part of the uniforms of the British Army.
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 military victories.
The United States Army adopted khaki during the Spanish–American War (1898), replacing their traditional blue field uniforms. The United States Navy and United States Marine Corps followed suit, authorizing khaki field and work uniforms.
When khaki was adopted for the continental British Service Dress in 1902, the shade chosen had a clearly darker and more green hue (see photo). This color was adopted with minor variations by all the British Empire armies. The 1902 US Army uniform regulations also adopted a similar shade for soldiers' winter service uniforms under the name olive drab. This shade of brown-green remained in use by many countries throughout the two World Wars.
Use in civilian clothing
Following World War II, military-issue khaki-colored
chino cloth twill trousers became a common part of civilian clothing. Today, the term
khakis is sometimes used to refer to the style of trousers, properly called chinos, regardless of their color.
Tones of khaki
Light khaki
Adjacent is displayed the color
light khaki (also called khaki tan or just tan).
This is the web color called khaki in HTML/CSS.
Khaki
The color shown adjacent matches the color designated as
khaki in the 1930 book
A Dictionary of Color, the standard for color nomenclature before the introduction of computers. It corresponds to RAL 1001 Beige in the RAL colour standard.
Dark khaki
Adjacent is displayed the web color
dark khaki.
[ CSS3 Color Module, retrieved 2010-09-12] It corresponds to
Dark Khaki in the X11 color names and to RAL 7008 Khaki Gray in the RAL colour standard.
Khaki green
Adjacent is displayed the color
khaki green, sometimes called simply
khaki in Commonwealth countries. It corresponds to RAL 6003 Olive Green in the RAL colour standard. It is more commonly called
olive green or
olive drab.
See also
External links
