This article is about the fabric.
For the colour, see Khaki .
Kaki, another name for the persimmon,
is often misspelled "Khaki".
Khaki is a common color in military
uniforms
Khaki color plastered home in a
village of Pakistan
Khaki is a type of
fabric
or the
colour of such fabric. The
name comes from the
Persian word
khâk (dust/ashes) which came to English from
British India, specifically via the
British Indian Army. It is in Britain;
in the US; , , or, increasingly, in Canada) (in
Persian:
خاکی .
Regardless of its precise etymology, "khaki" refers to the colour
of uniforms introduced by the army regiments in the 1880s. More
accurately, the correct shade of "khaki" is the colour of "Multani
Mitti", meaning "the mud of Multan".
Multan
was a well
known military cantonment of British India (now in Pakistan).
During the
Second Boer War, the
British forces became known as Khakis because of their
uniforms.
In 1846
Sir Harry Lumsden raised a
corps of Guides for
frontier service from British Indian recruits at Peshawar
.
Regiments serving in the region had adopted properly dyed khaki
uniforms for active service and summer dress. The original khaki
fabric was a closely twilled cloth of
linen or
cotton. The
British
Army adopted khaki for the campaign dress in 1897, and it was
used in the
Second Boer War
(1899-1902). A darker shade of khaki
serge was
adopted for home service dress in 1902.
The
United States Army adopted
khaki during the
Spanish American
War (1898). It has become
de
rigueur for
military
uniforms of
militaries the world over
(e.g., the
United States Navy and
the
United States Marine
Corps), as well as the police forces of many South Asian
countries and
U.S. states and counties.
It has also spread to
civilian clothing,
where "khakis" since the 1950s has meant tan cotton
twill pants/
trousers.
"Khaki" has also become a common slang term in the United States
Navy that refers to
chief petty
officers and
officer (who
wear a khaki-colored
uniform).
Today, civilian "khakis" come in all ranges of colors and the term
refers more to the particular design or cut of the
pants/
trousers. In this
context, "Khakis" have become popular as
business casual pants/
trousers, and includes
other cuts and fabric types (such as
chinos).
References
- The uniquely Canadian rhotic pronunciation rhymes with "malarkey". In
The Canadian Dictionary (McClelland
and Stewart, 1962), this pronunciation is cited solely and
exclusively.
See also
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