Olive (color)

Look up olive in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Olive
    Color coordinates
Hex triplet #808000
sRGBB  (r, g, b) (128, 128, 0)
CMYKH   (c, m, y, k) (0, 0, 100, 50)
HSV       (h, s, v) (60°, 100%, 50[1]%)
Source X11 color names
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)
H: Normalized to [0–100] (hundred)
Green olives

Olive is a dark yellowish-green color,[2] like that of unripe or green olives. As a color word in the English language, it appears in late Middle English. Shaded toward gray, it becomes olive drab.

Variations

Olivine

Green sand is actually olivine crystals, which has been eroded from lava rocks
Olivine
    Color coordinates
Hex triplet #9AB973
sRGBB  (r, g, b) (154, 185, 115)
CMYKH   (c, m, y, k) (17, 0, 38, 27)
HSV       (h, s, v) (87°, 38%, 73%)
Source /Maerz & Paul[3]
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)
H: Normalized to [0–100] (hundred)

Olivine is the typical color of the mineral olivine.

The first recorded use of Olivine as a color name in English was in 1912.[4]

Olive drab

Olive Drab
    Color coordinates
Hex triplet #6B8E23
sRGBB  (r, g, b) (107, 142, 35)
CMYKH   (c, m, y, k) (25, 0, 75, 44)
HSV       (h, s, v) (80°, 75%, 56%)
Source X11 color names
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)
H: Normalized to [0–100] (hundred)
Olive drab camouflage
    Color coordinates
Hex triplet #544F3D
sRGBB  (r, g, b) (84, 79, 61)
CMYKH   (c, m, y, k) (60, 60, 100, 50)
HSV       (h, s, v) (47°, 27.4%, 32.9%)
Source Federal Standard 595 33070
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)
H: Normalized to [0–100] (hundred)

Olive drab is variously described as a "dull olive-green colour" (Oxford English Dictionary);[5] "a shade of greenish-brown" (Webster's New World Dictionary);[6] "a dark gray-green" (MacMillan English dictionary); "a grayish olive to dark olive brown or olive gray (American Heritage Dictionary);[7] or "A dull but fairly strong gray-green color" (Collins English Dictionary). It was widely used as a camouflage color for uniforms and equipment in the armed forces, particularly by the U.S. Army during the Second World War. (see illustrations below).

The first recorded use of olive drab as a color name in English was in 1892.[8] Drab is an older color name, from the middle of the 16th century. It refers to a dull light brown color, the color of cloth made from undyed homespun wool. It took its name from the old French word for cloth, drap.[9]

Olive drab was the color of the standard fighting uniform for U.S. GIs and military vehicles during World War II. U.S. soldiers often referred to their uniforms as "OD's" due to the color. The color used at the beginning of the war by the U.S. Army was officially called Olive Drab #3, which was replaced by the darker Olive Drab #7 by 1944, and which was again replaced by Olive Green 107 or OG-107 in 1952,[10] and continued as the official uniform color for combat fatigues through the Vietnam War, until replaced by Engineer Research & Development Laboratories (ERDL) camouflage uniforms. The ERDL uniforms were then replaced by M81 woodland camo fatigues as the primary U.S. uniform scheme in the 1980s, and still retain olive drab as one of the color swatches in the pattern.

As a solid color, it is not as effective for camouflage as multiple-color camo schemes (i.e., U.S. Army Combat Uniform, Tigerstripe, MARPAT, Multicam, etc.), though it is still used by the U.S. military to color webbing and accessories. There are very few countries still issuing uni-color Olive Drab uniforms, Israel, India, Cuba, Venezuela, and Austria being the exceptions.

In the American novel A Separate Peace, Finny says to Gene, "...and in these times of war, we all see olive drab, and we all know it is the patriotic color. All others aren't about the war; they aren't patriotic."

There are many shades and variations of olive drab; one common version is defined by Federal Standard 595 in the United States.[11]

Dark olive green

Dark Olive Green
    Color coordinates
Hex triplet #556B2F
sRGBB  (r, g, b) (85, 107, 47)
CMYKH   (c, m, y, k) (20, 0, 56, 58)
HSV       (h, s, v) (82°, 56%, 42[12]%)
Source X11
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)
H: Normalized to [0–100] (hundred)

Displayed at right is the web color dark olive green.

Black olive

An example of black olives
Olive (RAL)
    Color coordinates
Hex triplet #3B3C36
sRGBB  (r, g, b) (59, 60, 54)
CMYKH   (c, m, y, k) (2, 9, 10, 77)
HSV       (h, s, v) (70°, 10%, 24[13]%)
Source RAL
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)
H: Normalized to [0–100] (hundred)

Black olive is a color in the RAL color matching system. It is designated as RAL 6015.

The color "black olive" is a representation of the color of black olives, the variety of olives sold in cans in supermarkets.

This is one of the colors in the RAL color matching system, a color system widely used in Europe. The RAL color list first originated in 1927, and it reached its present form in 1961.

Olive in human culture

Ethnography

See also

References

  1. ↑ web.forret.com Color Conversion Tool set to hex code #808000 (Olive):
  2. ↑ http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/olive
  3. ↑ The color displayed in the color box above matches the color called olivine in the 1930 book by Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill; the color olivine is displayed on page 59, Plate 18, Color Sample C6.
  4. ↑ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York: 1930—McGraw-Hill Page 200; Color Sample of Olivine: Page 59, Plate 18, Color Sample C6
  5. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary, 5th Edition, 1982
  6. ↑ Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language";
  7. ↑ American Heritage Dictionary of the American Language, 4th edition.
  8. ↑ Maerz and Paul A Dictionary of Color New York:1930 McGraw-Hill Page 200; Color Sample of Olive Drab: Page 53 Plate 15 Color Sample J5
  9. ↑ Oxford English Dictionary, 5th Edition, 1982
  10. ↑ "Soldier'S Barracks Bag". Olive-drab.com. 2008-05-22. Retrieved 2009-04-15.
  11. ↑ "What Does Olive Drab Mean?". Olive-drab.com. 2008-05-22. Retrieved 2009-04-15.
  12. ↑ web.forret.com Color Conversion Tool set to hex code #556B2F (Dark Olive Green):
  13. ↑ web.forret.com Color Conversion Tool set to hex code of color # 3B3C36 (Black Olive):