olive skin?

Olives are only green when they're harvested under-ripened...

If they remain on the tree until they're fully ripe, first they turn brown, then black!

Also, the Mediterranean is the "Olive-Belt", so perhaps that's the real connection in comparisons...

I never really thought about how strange of a description "olive" is for a skintone. You're right. But if you're looking for a visual, people of descent from countries bordering the Mediterranean tend to have the skintone that is categorized as "olive." Hope that helped.

It is a good question. Olive drab, an Army uniform color is green. I always understood that when talking about skin, it meant like Mediterranean but I don't know why it doesn't mean Vulcan.

Olive skin is normally yellow-tinted instead of pink,darker than normal fair skin but not extremely swarthy, and tends to go light brown in the sun rather than burn.

By word meaning it is a sort of skin/material/plant/idea etc . are strong enough to withstand pressure/defensive inorder to protect its dependance. for example there is a common saying he/she caught the olive branch. olive is also simpale of peace.

oh i totally know whatcha mean !

theres black olives ..... but still . when i picture an olive i picture a green thing with a pink-ishh centerr (:

i always thought it was odd too - also, referring to asian skin as yellow. i guess there are shades of these colors in skin and it has been exagerated (a lot).