The many shades of 'taupe - Too many shades of 'taupe'

Okay, it's hopeless.

It took me years to grasp color names that aren't "brown" or "tan" or "red" ... you know, those mauves and chartreuses and cinnamons.

I was looking at Craig's list today and found some 16x16 porcelain tile described as "taupe" in color.

Not sure what color "taupe" is, for sure, I Googled it and found this:




Turns out, I still don't know what color taupe is.

Is it brown?
or gray?
or tan?
or pink?
Maybe it's shoes?
Do they make tile the color of shoes?
What kind of shoes?

I make a terrible gay guy...
but then I've said that before.