Beige
mid 19th century (denoting a usually undyed and unbleached woollen fabric of this colour): from French, of unknown ultimate origin.
wiktionary
Borrowed from French(dialectal) beige, from Old French bege(“color of undyed wool or cotton”), from an Alpine language (compare Franco-Provençal bézho, Romansch besch(“dull grey”)), from Vulgar Latin *bysseus(“cottony grey”) (compare French bis, Catalan bis, Italian bìgio), from Late Latin byssus 'cotton', from Ancient Greek βύσσος(bússos) 'cotton homespun', from Semitic (compare Hebrew/Aramaic בוץ (būṣ)). Doublet of bice.
etymonline
beige (n.)
1858, "fine woolen fabric," from dialectal French beige "yellowish-gray, brownish-gray," from Old French bege "the natural color of wool and cotton; raw, not dyed" (13c.), of obscure origin. According to Gamillscheg, the French word was especially associated with the Burgundy and Franche-Comté regions. As a shade of color, it is attested in English from 1891. As an adjective, "having the natural color of undyed wool," by 1875.
