beige

Meaning

Noun

1. (countable, uncountable) A slightly yellowish gray colour, as that of unbleached wool.
2. (countable, uncountable) Debeige; a kind of woollen or mixed dress goods.

Adj

1. Having a slightly yellowish gray colour, as that of unbleached wool.
2. (informal) Comfortably dull and unadventurous, in a way that suggests middle-class suburbia.

Synonyms

ecru

light brown

off-white

cream-colored

stone

🪨

tan

milky

light gray

Translations

beige

beige

beige

μπεζ

beige

beige

Beige

bej

بيج

bege

beix

bigio

beige

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈbeɪʒ/

Etymology

Cognate with French: bis

Cognate with Catalan: bis

Cognate with Italian: bigio

In summary

Unadapted borrowing from French (dialectal) beige, from Old French bege (“color of undyed wool or cotton”), from an Alpine language (compare Franco-Provençal bézho, Romansch besch (“dull grey”)), from Vulgar Latin *bysseus (“cottony grey”) (compare French bis, Catalan bis, Italian bigio), from Late Latin byssus (“cotton”), from Ancient Greek βύσσος (bússos, “cotton homespun”), from Semitic (compare Hebrew/Aramaic בוץ (būṣ)). Doublet of bice.