local color

noun

distinctive, sometimes picturesque characteristics or peculiarities of a place or period as represented in literature or drama, or as observed in reality.
Fine Arts. the natural color of a particular object as it appears in normal light.

Origin of local color

First recorded in 1715–25

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Paul Psychiatrists per capita: 44 Stress: 51 Eccentricity: 15 Drinking: 30 (tie) local color: At the Minneapolis-St.
America's Craziest Cities | The Daily Beast | March 11, 2010 | THE DAILY BEAST
The latter came to rough it in local color, the former to dream of a better world.
Fee of the Frontier | Horace Brown Fyfe
It was Harwood's habit to spend a day in the towns he visited, gathering local color and collecting anecdotal matter.
A Hoosier Chronicle | Meredith Nicholson
Full of local color and rich in quaint phraseology and suggestion.
Wayside Courtships | Hamlin Garland
A third paper may speak of an interesting theme which may be called the local color of songs.
The Complete Club Book for Women | Caroline French Benton

As to style, no one cared for that, not even the author; as to ideas—zero; as to local color—non est.
Parisians in the Country | Honore de Balzac

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