[4][5] The word "beige" has come to be used to describe a variety of light tints chosen for their neutral or pale warm appearance.

Beige began to commonly be used as a term for a color in France beginning approximately 1855–60; the writer Edmond de Goncourt used it in the novel La Fille Elisa in 1877.

[citation needed] Beige is also a popular color in clothing, such as for men's trousers, as well as for interior design.

[8] Unbleached silk is one of the Japanese traditional colors in use since beginning in 660 CE in the form of various dyes that are used in designing kimonos.

[13] According to the Oxford English Dictionary, buff as a descriptor of a color was first used in the London Gazette of 1686, describing a uniform to be "A Red Coat with a Buff-colour'd lining".

[28] Fish Mammal Beige is sometimes used as a metaphor for something which is bland, boring, conventional, or even sad.