Russet is a dark brown color with a reddish-orange tinge.

The first recorded use of russet as a color name in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 was in 1562.

The source of this color is the ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Color Names (1955)--Color dictionary used by stamp collectors to identify the colors of stamps

The name of the color derives from russet

Russet

Russet is a coarse woolen cloth of grey or brown.It may also refer to*Russet Burbank potato*Russet apple*Russet *Russeting treatment for metal...

, a coarse cloth made of wool and dyed with woad

Woad

Isatis tinctoria, with Woad as the common name, is a flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae. It is commonly called dyer's woad, and sometimes incorrectly listed as Isatis indigotica . It is occasionally known as Asp of Jerusalem...

 and madder

Madder

Rubia is a genus of the madder family Rubiaceae, which contains about 60 species of perennial scrambling or climbing herbs and sub-shrubs native to the Old World, Africa, temperate Asia and America...

 to give it a subdued grey or reddish-brown shade. By the statute of 1363, poor English people were required to wear russet.

See also

• List of colors
• Russet apple
  Russet apple
  Russeting on apples is a particular type of skin, slightly rough, usually with a greenish-brown to yellowish-brown colour. Many apple cultivars have some natural russeting, but some are almost entirely covered in it, notably the Egremont Russet. Russet apples often exhibit a scent and flavour...
  
  
• Russet potato