Fallow
A soft brown shade named for the look of dry fields and old leaves
Fallow is a light brown colour, similar to the faded look of dried leaves or sandy earth left unplanted. Its name has been used in English for over a thousand years, making it one of the earliest colour terms. Fallow shares its colour value with shades like wood brown, camel, and desert.
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- First used as a colour name in English in the year 1000
- Looks like dried leaves or sandy, uncultivated soil
- Colour value matches wood brown, camel, and desert
- Describes the coat of the fallow deer
What colour is Fallow?
Fallow is a gentle, pale brown that brings to mind the colour of dried plants or sandy ground left to rest between crops. It sits among the lighter browns, with a muted, earthy quality that sets it apart from richer or more golden browns. Its tone is close to the colour of certain animal coats and landscapes that have dried out after the growing season.
Where does Fallow come from?
The word 'fallow' as a colour has been part of English since at least the year 1000, making it one of the oldest colour terms in the language. While the name now often calls up images of empty fields or faded leaves, these links were made after the fact and do not share the same root as the farming term. Over time, the word has also described the appearance of some animals.
Where Fallow is used
Fallow has been used to describe the appearance of animal fur, especially that of the fallow deer. It also serves as a reference point for other pale brown shades in colour standards. The shade is recognised in colour dictionaries and guides, but the sources do not mention specific uses in art, textiles, or design.
Brown around the world
What the brown family means from country to country.
Brown is the colour of Nazism in German political speech, after the brown shirts of the party's stormtroopers. To call a view "brown" is to call it far right.
Politics and protestDanger and warningShameSource: SturmabteilungMasi is bark cloth beaten from paper mulberry and printed in brown and black. It is worn at weddings and funerals and given in ceremonial exchanges.
Sacred and holyWeddings and marriageSource: Tapa clothKuntunkuni is a dark brown mourning cloth of the Asante, dyed with tree bark. Adinkra cloth, stamped with symbols, was first made on such dark grounds for funerals.
Mourning and deathSadnessSource: Adinkra symbolsThe batik of the Javanese courts at Yogyakarta and Surakarta is dyed in soga brown with indigo and cream. Some court patterns were once reserved for the royal family.
Royalty and powerPrideSource: BatikBogolanfini, or mud cloth, is cotton painted with fermented river mud in browns, black and white. Hunters wear it for protection, and women after childbirth.
Protection and healingSacred and holySource: BògòlanfiniShades and relatives of Fallow
Fallow matches the colour values of wood brown, camel, and desert, all of which are pale browns with slight differences in name and history. These related shades were named much later, between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Fallow is sometimes confused with these because their colour coordinates are identical.
Colours that go with Fallow
Harmonies are worked out from the value #C19A6B. Contrast ratios follow the WCAG 2 formula.
Questions people ask about Fallow
What colour is fallow?
Fallow is a light, muted brown, similar to the colour of dried leaves or sandy soil left unplanted.
Where does the name 'fallow' come from?
The colour name 'fallow' has been in English since around the year 1000. Its link to fields and dried plants is a later association, not the original source.
Is fallow the same as camel or wood brown?
Fallow shares the same colour coordinates as camel, wood brown, and desert, but the names were recorded at different times.
What animals are described as fallow in colour?
The term has been used for the coats of animals such as the fallow deer.
Good reading and sources
The facts on this page come from the Wikipedia article "Fallow (color)", written by its contributors and used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, and from its Wikidata record (CC0). Rang rewrote the text in its own words, with AI assistance, and compares every page with the article to make sure no passage is copied. It may be reused under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence with a link back.
It may contain mistakes. The swatch is an approximation: named colours are not fixed standards, and every screen shows them a little differently. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-03.
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