flesh color

American  

noun

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

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

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Sensitive Note

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 peach flesh color or dark flesh color . The word nude in the past has been used to describe a similar hue approximating a white person's skin color and has been criticized for the same reason.

Other Word Forms

• flesh-colored adjective

Etymology

Origin of flesh color

First recorded in 1605–15

Example Sentences

The gene beta-carotene oxygenase 1 is responsible for carotenoid metabolism and most likely explains flesh color variation in salmon.

From Salon

While the flesh color is a direct result of carotenoids in their diet, there is also a unique genetic component.

From Salon

She widely encounters forms of design that suggest “I don’t belong,” she writes, such as eyeglasses unfitted to the bridge of her nose and “medical adhesives not in my flesh color.”

From New York Times

It is the flesh color, as the bald spot grows.

From New York Times

It was a gastrolith, a paleontologist’s dream, about the size of a small marble, and he recently displayed it in his hand in the Mines’ paleontology laboratory, its blackness contrasting sharply against the flesh color of his palm.

From Washington Times