Literary notes about olive (AI summary)
In literature the color olive is often deployed to evoke a natural, subdued earthiness that enriches both physical description and mood. Authors use hues like olive-yellow to bring warmth and quiet energy to characters and settings—for instance, a creature might be rendered in a gentle olive-yellow [1] while an individual's skin is described as olive, suggesting an understated beauty and resilience [2]. Olive-green appears frequently in depictions of clothing and drapery that imbue scenes with calm solidity, as seen when a mantle is rendered in olive-green [3] or when military austerity is evoked by olive-drab uniforms [4, 5]. Even in nature, the olive tone emerges in the interplay of light and shadow—whether in the dark olive shades of a fish [6] or the nuanced tint in animal markings [7, 8]—demonstrating the color's versatility in conveying both literal and metaphorical richness throughout a narrative.
- The male is 423 brown, with the abdomen blue underneath; the female, of a sort of olive-yellow, bordered by yellow on the sides.
— from The Insect World Being a Popular Account of the Orders of Insects; Together with a Description of the Habits and Economy of Some of the Most Interesting Species by Louis Figuier - he mutters under his breath, and grows pale beneath his olive skin.
— from The Bride of the Tomb, and Queenie's Terrible Secret by Miller, Alex. McVeigh, Mrs. - The mantle is olive-green, the breast yellowish.
— from Birds useful and birds harmful by Ottó Herman - When he was all dressed in his olive-drab she still could not let him go.
— from We Can't Have Everything: A Novel by Rupert Hughes - Each $6.75 Officer’s Army Olive Drab Serge Ventilated Raincoat.
— from Military Equipment [1917] by Roebuck and Company Sears - —In the brooks most fishes are dark olive or greenish above and white below.
— from Elementary Zoology, Second Edition by Vernon L. (Vernon Lyman) Kellogg - Wings and tail olive-brown edged with olive-green.
— from Life Histories of North American Wood Warblers, Part One and Part Two by Arthur Cleveland Bent - a dorsal stripe of olive-brown, very dark at the beginning of each segment, with a thin edging of brownish-white.
— from The Butterflies of the British Isles by Richard South
