a. (and sb.) Also 7 cromatick, 7–8 chromatique. [ad. L. chrōmatic-us or Gr. χρωματικ-ός (chiefly in the musical sense), f. χρῶμα color. Cf. F. chromatique.]
A. adj. I. Pertaining to color.
1. Of or belonging to color or colors; consisting of or produced by color. (Chiefly a scientific technical term.)
1841–4. Emerson, Ess. Nom. & Realist, Wks. (Bohn), I. 251. I read for the lustres, as if one should use a fine picture in a chromatic experiment, for its rich colours.
1862. Tyndall, Mountaineer., xii. 97. The chromatic splendours of our atmosphere.
1869. Napheys, Phys. Life Woman, IV. (1878), 322. Chromatic memory, or the memory of colors.
1870. H. Macmillan, Bible Teach., vii. 149. Though green is the prevailing hue … yet the whole chromatic scale may be seen illustrated in the foliage of plants.
b. Chromatic aberration: the non-convergence of the different colored constituents of white light to one focus, when refracted through a lens (see ABERRATION 6); also called chromatic dispersion. Chromatic function: see quot. 1879. Chromatic printing: printing from blocks or types inked with various colors.
1831. Brewster, Optics, ix. § 66. 80. The extreme red rays … will be found to have their focus in R … the extreme violet rays … will be refracted to a focus V much nearer the lens…. The distance VR is called the chromatic aberration.
1837. Goring & Pritchard, Microgr., 177. The second defect, chromatic dispersion, arising from the unequal refrangibility of the light.
1879. trans. Semper’s Anim. Life, 91. Pouchet applied the term chromatic function to that adaptation of colour to the surroundings of the creature which is indirectly the result of sight.
1881. Carpenter, Microscope, i. 13. The Chromatic error is scarcely perceptible.
2. Full of color, brightly or highly colored.
1864. Sala, in Daily Tel., 23 Dec., 5/4. Magnificently varied tints—now dazzlingly chromatic, now mellow.
1876. J. Ellis, Caesar in Egypt, 30. Along the floor, Chromatic, tesselate with marbles rare.
1880. Print. Trades Jrnl., XXXI. 6. The cover still retains its rich chromatic character.
† 3. App. transl. Gr. χρωματικός, ‘in Rhetoric, florid, elaborate, artificial’ (Liddell & Scott).
1652. Urquhart, Jewel, Wks. (1834), 292. Figurative expressions, whether … paradiastolary, antipophoretick, cromatick, or any other way of figuring a speech by opposition.
4. See quot. [cf. Isidore x. 45. Chromaticus, quia non confunditur, nec colorem mutat.]
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Chromatick (chromaticus) that never blusheth, whose colour never changeth.
1678. in Phillips.
1721. in Bailey.
II. Music.
5. a. The name given to one of the three kinds of tetrachords in Greek music, the others being the diatonic and the enharmonic. b. In modern music: Pertaining to or including notes which do not belong to the diatonic scale; admitting notes that are marked with accidentals, and are not normal to the scale of the passage where they occur, but which do not cause modulation.
Chromatic scale: a scale that proceeds by semitones.
Chromatic semitone: the interval between a note and the same note flattened or sharpened; e.g., A—A♯, B♭—B.
[1597. Morley, Introd. Mus., Annot., Practicall Musicke … is of three kindes: Diatonicum, Chromaticum, and Enharmonicum.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 682. Agathon … first brought up the Chromaticke musicke. Ibid., Gloss., Chromaticke Musicke, was soft, delicate and effeminate, ful of descant, fained voices and quavering, as some are of opinion.]
1630[?]. Milton, At Solemn Musick, MS. reading (T.). Those harsh chromatick jars Of sin that all our musick mars.
1674. Playford, Skill Mus., III. 35. The second Note … made flat by the cromatick flat sign.
a. 1680. Butler, Rem. (1759), I. 180. His wild Irish and chromatic Tones.
1693. Shadwell, Volunteers, III. (1720), IV. 440. Ah, that’s fine, that’s chromatick: I love chromatick musick mightily.
1694. Phil. Trans., XVIII. 72. A Ring of Bells tuned to Chromatick Intervals.
1742. Pope, Dunc., IV. 55. Chromatic tortures soon shall drive them hence.
a. 1789. Burney, Hist. Mus. (ed. 2), I. i. 25. The regular chromatic scale consisted of semitones and minor thirds.
1845. E. Holmes, Mozart, 176. The ‘Crucifixus’ … often displays chromatic harmony, wrought up to the highest pitch of the awful and sublime.
1881. Macfarren, Counterp., iii. 5. A scale is chromatic when the seven diatonic notes are interspersed with the five inflected notes.
b. transf. of persons, etc.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 29, ¶ 13. Musick is not design’d to please only Chromatick Ears, but all that are capable of distinguishing harsh from disagreeable Notes.
1774. Foote, in Westm. Mag., II. 376. From squeaking Monarchs and Chromatic Queens … I come.
B. quasi-sb.
† 1. Painting. The art of coloring. Obs.
1695. Dryden, trans. Dufresnoy, Pref. p. xlvij. (J.). The third part of Painting, which is call’d the Chromatique or Colouring.
1761. Brit. Mag., II. 541. Zeuxis … excelled all his cotemporaries in the chromatique, or art of colouring.
2. Chromatics. The science of color.
c. 1790. Imison, Sch. Arts, I. 199. Optics … consist of three parts, viz. Catoptrics, Dioptrics, and Chromatics.
1870. H. Macmillan, Bible Teach., 117. Sidereal chromatics have become a distinct branch of study.
1881. Mabel Winfred Laing, in Knowledge, 2 Dec., No. 5. 96/2. A statement is put forward with respect to the constitution of the solar spectrum, which differs from that set forth in other similar works upon chromatics.
3. pl. Chromatic notes, harmonies, etc.
1708. Kersey, Chromaticks, a pleasant and delightful sort of Musick.
1794. J. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Odes Condol., Wks. III. 236.
| The ear with harsh chromatics must be teas’d, | |
| Grown much too fashionable to be pleas’d. |
1833. Athenæum, 16 Nov., 762. I play the flute—she heeds not my chromatics.
