flesh color

usage alert about flesh color

While flesh color originally meant the skin tone of white people, that meaning has been criticized as exclusionary and is now considered offensive. In fact, the term is no longer commonly used without qualifying it with a specific hue, such as tan flesh color , peach flesh color , or black flesh color . The word nude has historically been used to describe a similar hue approximating a white person's skin color and has been criticized for the same reason.

noun

(no longer in common use; now considered offensive) a yellowish pink or pinkish cream color (approximating the skin color of a white person).

a color that falls within the spectrum of human skin colors.

Origin of flesh color

First recorded in 1605–15; def. 1 from approximating the color of a white person's skin

OTHER WORDS FROM flesh color

flesh-col·ored, adjective

Words nearby flesh color

flensburg, flense, flerovium, flesh, flesh and blood, flesh color, flesh fly, flesh out, flesh peddler, flesh wound, fleshed

Example sentences from the Web for flesh color

Its color is yellowish or flesh-color, with whitish edges and a central band.

The Sea-beach at Ebb-tide |Augusta Foote Arnold
The gills are deeply decurrent, close, whitish, then flesh-color.

The Mushroom, Edible and Otherwise |M. E. Hard
After a good deal of deliberation, and many interrogatories, I was enregistered as No. 1, flesh-color.

The Monikins |J. Fenimore Cooper
The legs are yellowish, or reddish-yellow, and sometimes of flesh-color.

Sheep, Swine, and Poultry |Robert Jennings

In only two details were they agreed: faces and hands were to have flesh-color, and lips were to be painted red.

Walter Pieterse |Multatuli

BROWSE DICTIONARY