A descriptive color name matched to the fruit of the olive tree.
The name came into use in the middle of the 18th Century. The first recorded use of olive drab as a colour name in English was in 1892. Drab is an older colour name, from the middle of the 16th century. It refers to a dull light brown colour, the colour of cloth made from undyed homespun wool. It took its name from the old French word for cloth, drap.