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Comment by seszett | Hacker News Reader

It's not just Japanese. I'm French and I had no idea khaki was some kind of beige in English. In French it's the same colour as in Japanese. As far as I know, it's also the case in Dutch at least (Dutch, or Flanders, maybe it depends on the place rather than the language).

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Another color naming confusion is the French "pourpre" vs English "purple". Pourpre in French has more deep red in it than the shade of magenta described by purple. (Don't get me started on violet).

would 'pourpre' be burgundy in english?

Pretty close… I'd say it is between burgundy and maroon, closer to burgundy but with a slight purple/violet tint that makes it not exactly burgundy.

Edit: "maroon" can be confusing to French speakers since "marron" in French means brown.

> (Don't get me started on violet).

Well, now you've piqued my interested. Please, get started on violet!

People are using the same name for two distinct colors, a mix of blue and red on the one hand, and on the other hand the pure spectral color after blue and indigo, which by definition doesn't have any red in it, being on the other side of the spectrum. Also, modern electronics based on RGB primaries can't display violet.

I'm from Spain and I always thought khaki was the beigeish one. Not sure if this is common there though.

In Italy it is normally intended as a beige as well.

It is actually also an "official" web color #C3B091

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khaki

The "light khaki" is definitely "yellowish", whilst the "dark khaki" is someewhat more "greenish".

It is entirely possible that the confusion, at least in English, came continuing to call khaki the uniforms even if the colour was actually later changed to a grey green called "olive drab".

Same in Turkish. It's also called military green. Maybe the North American use is the real exception.

Nope, it's also beige at least in Danish.

For more than four decades I have done the greater part part of my reading (the far greater part - maybe 90 percent) in various shades of English. Only a year or two ago did I come across a sentence which somehow suggested that khaki did not necessarily designate the militarily greenish color I had always assumed because that's what it means, period, in my native Danish. Or used to mean. Things may be slipping with the massive encroachment of English into everyday speaking and writing we're seeing these days.

Beige in north America, not in English.

Same. In Oz khaki is military green.

I'm Australian and khaki for me is the same as the picture centre left in the article's top picture (it looks like some kind of voluminous skirt, the model is wearing red socks).

Definitely not military green (which I would call olive drab, but that may be from building too many Airfix models as a child).

Khaki is also not the fine selection of beige as seen in the chinos picture in the article.

Edit: This colour is what I could call khaki: https://www.betabrand.com/media/catalog/product/b/r/british_...

Hrm, yours is more greeny-brown, mine is more browny-green, but I think we're on the same page. See you at Aussie Disposals!

Seconded. Another Frenchman here. "Kaki" means greenish in French, although Amazon seems confused:

https://www.amazon.fr/s?k=pantalon+kaki

In Swedish it is also an unsaturated, earthy, green, or "military" green.

Really? For me it's more beige, and I'm swedish.

I'm Swedish too, and grew up with the same understanding as the parent poster. Only in recent years have I understood that khaki can refer to both a military type green or sand like beige color.

I asked my wife, who knows nothing about this thread, how she would describe khaki.

"Oh, beige-green, sort of."

:-)

According to NE thesaurus:

"ljus, gul-brun-grå färg som påminner om (väg)damm el. sand: kakifärgad HIST.: sedan 1904"

Swede here. I asked my wife too, her reply is that the color "khaki" is a shade of green - "khakigrönt". But the specific style of pants - "khakibyxor" - are generally beige.

In Polish it’s the same as in Japanese.

In Greek too

True. In Greek it actually means Army Green (https://www.colorhexa.com/4b5320)

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