Worldbuilding question

[pjthompson]

Is "khaki" a color or a concept?

Khaki in our world refers to a very particular shade of dusty brown/beige, but the derivation of the word comes to us from Persia via India and the British Raj and, according to Wiki, a particular shade of mud in Multan. It's a cultural-thing, but in modern times it's come to be a color-thing. I wouldn't hesitate to use "green" because it comes from the Old English word for "to grow," but khaki does seem to have more cultural baggage than other color-related terms.

(The French, always contrary, use khaki to mean olive drab, but we can't do anything about the French, so I'm referring to brown-beige color.) (Kissy-kissy to my friends in France.)

My question is, how big of a worldbuilding sin would it be to use the word khaki on an alternate universe Earth?

I guess I could say something like "sand-colored uniforms," but it seems kind of non-specific. Or maybe I'm just thinking inside the box. What do you think?

Comments

[wldhrsjen3.livejournal.com]

Eek. I would have said that khaki is a color, of course, but that only shows my ignorance of the wider context. X.x

Can you invent your own sort of mud? And then have uniforms the "color of the mud clay only found in [blank area]"??

But then I don't know how your readers could visualize it... Hm. That's a tangled sort of problem. I'm curious to know how you end up resolving it!

[pjthompson]

Yes, it's a fine line sometimes between clarity and worldbuilding. I suppose, since they wear these uniforms as a kind of camouflage in the desert, they could just be "sand-colored uniforms."

[will-couvillier.livejournal.com]

from Merriam Webster Online:

"Function: noun
Etymology: Hindi & Urdu khākī dust-colored, from khāk dust, from Persian
Date: 1857
1 a: a khaki-colored cloth made usually of cotton or wool and used especially for military uniforms b: a garment of this cloth; especially : a military uniform —usually used in plural
2: a light yellowish brown"

So. It's the color, and the cloth, and what is made from the cloth. For your question: it would depend on how close you make your alternate Earth to Earth. If it's close, then Khaki is fine, if farther off, then soiltoned cloth or somesuch. IMHO, anyway.

[pjthompson]

I'm thinking now I was approaching the question from the wrong angle. I shouldn't ask myself, "Is it okay to use khaki?" but "Why do they wear khaki?" The answer, of course, is that it camouflages them in the desert. So, "sand-colored" uniforms.

Thanks. This has been helpful.

[sarah-prineas.livejournal.com]

Tough one.

I try to be a purist about this kind of thing (when I'm aware of a word's etymology, that is). I'm inclined to say "sand-colored" in a secondary world (assuming they have sand).

[pjthompson]

I'm coming to that same conclusion. Knowing the derivation of the word makes me uncomfortable about using it. (And yes, they wear khaki-colored uniforms as a kind of camouflage in the desert.) Thanks!

[kmkibble75.livejournal.com]

I think it's enough of a color these days to pass, even in a fantasy book. Now, when it's translated into other languages that may change... but for now I'd think it's okay.

[pjthompson]

I could probably get away with it, but it keeps sticking in my craw. We'll see if I can come up with something that isn't worse then just saying "khaki."

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I see color, fabric, style...

[pjthompson]

Yes, all those things. I have to ask myself what message I want to convey and decide from there.

[hominysnark.livejournal.com]

It's possible you're overthinking this. ;)

[pjthompson]

Pay not attention to me. I'm a space holder for that other message I thought it best to delete.

[hominysnark.livejournal.com]

Too late! Lack of internets kept me from replying to the first one, but the gist of my thoughts is that even if you use a word to mean a very specific color, it's not going to look the same in other people's heads, so if "khaki" is bothersome, come up with something close enough, 'cause that's all you're going to be able to convey anyway.

Other people's heads are also bothersome, but that's another topic entirely. :)

[pjthompson]

Well, I knew you'd get it because of the sneaky interrrrnets notification thingies, but I started thinking about other people reading it and it didn't seem cool. Since I waited a day to delete it, they may have seen it anyway, but whatevs.

so if "khaki" is bothersome, come up with something close enough, 'cause that's all you're going to be able to convey anyway.

I know. I thought it through and decided it was just as easy to come up with a more neutral term that conveys and image without any cultural baggage. So I "came up" with the term that Miq Faure up with, stealing it mercilessly. Sandcloth.

Other people's heads are also bothersome, but that's another topic entirely. :)

Word!

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

You could make up your own word, like "dunecloth/sandcloth" or use another existing word in a new way in your world, frex: Everyone into your tawnies/drabs! Now!"

[pjthompson]

I like that! I'm going to steal your ideas and pass them off as my own.

I was just wondering this morning how you are doing. How the hell are you doing?

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Steal! Steal! I always have such a hard time naming things that I'm glad that I might have been helpful for once.

I'm hanging in there. Just taking advantage of a sickly pc to have some "quiet time." I think I'm about ready to come back out of the shell, though.

[pjthompson]

I think I'm about ready to come back out of the shell, though.

That'd be good. We're looking forward to that.

[handworn.livejournal.com]

Unless the entire thing is written in the language of this other world, it's implied and understood to be a translation, or its equivalent, I think. So I think "khaki" is perfectly acceptable. On the other hand, I think sand-colored is a better word. "Metaphor is the lifeblood of all art, if it is not art itself," as someone once said.

[pjthompson]

In the process of asking and replying, I've come to a similar conclusion myself. I think calling it something world-specific, like sand-colored or sandcloth, et al., makes for a richer subtext. I'm going to reexamine a number of words as I go along and see if I can do the same thing there.