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In:Progress in Colour Studies: Colour Expression and Cognition
Edited by Carole P. Biggam, Domicele Jonauskaite, Mari Uusküla and Dimitris Mylonas
[Not in series 244] 2026
► pp. 204–221

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Beige in Polish

Salience, associations, connotations and possible prototypical references

 | University of Gdańsk
 | University of Szczecin
Published online: 20 February 2026
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https://doi.org/10.1075/z.244.11sta
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to investigate how the noun beż and adjective beżowy ‘beige’, borrowed from French, are understood by Polish speakers. In a survey study, 100 participants (50 women and 50 men) were asked to write down their own definitions of beige as well as to provide associations and names of objects (both natural and artificial) and phenomena which are typically beige. The results of the survey indicate that Polish speakers perceive this colour as a mixture of brown and white, and they point to sand and white coffee as possible candidates for prototypical references of the adjective beżowy.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Dictionary definitions of beż and beżowy
  • 3.The position of beżowy in the Polish colour lexicon: Results of the elicitation list task
  • 4.The frequency of beżowy in the National Corpus of Polish
  • 5.The questionnaire and respondents
  • 6.Results of the survey
    • 6.1Descriptions of the colour beige
    • 6.2The status of the colour beige
    • 6.3Objects which are typically beige
    • 6.4Free associations with beige
    • 6.5Attitudes to beige
  • 7.Discussion and conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
References (30)
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