a. [ad. F. colorifique (cf. It. colorifico):—L. type *colorific-us color-making: see -FIC.] Producing color or colors. Colorific acids: a name given by Thomson (1807), to certain acids which precipitate metallic solutions in highly colored powders.
1676. Newton, in Rigaud, Corr. Sci. Men (1841), II. 392. The whiteness of that light … being the result of the mixture of these unequal colorific motions. Ibid. (1704), Opticks, I. II. § 11. 166. The colorific Qualities of the Rays.
1794. Kirwan, Min., I. 193. Colorific earths, or those which strongly stain the fingers.
1800. Sir W. Herschel, in Phil. Trans., XC. 273. The refrangibility of calorific rays cannot extend much beyond that of colourific light.
1807. T. Thomson, Chem. (ed. 3), II. 326. Under the name of colorific acids I include three substances … prussic and gallic acids … sulphureted hydrogen.
1861. H. Macmillan, Footnotes fr. Page Nature, 112. Lichens which are richest in colorific principles.
b. more loosely. Of or pertaining to color.
1751. Johnson, Rambler, No. 124, ¶ 7. This month [May] … decks the gardens with all the mixtures of colorifick radiance.
1851. Nichol, Archit. Heav., 223. The observed colorific changes of separate systems.
1889. L. Hearn, in Harper’s Mag., July, 299/1. Pleasure in the colorific radiance of costume.
c. fig. of literary style: Surcharged with color, ‘flowery.’
1812. W. Taylor, in Monthly Rev., LXVIII. 505. Descriptive poetry boasts the colorific pencil of Cayrasco Figueroa, who sang the gardens of Aranjuez.
1821. Blackw. Mag., X. 700/1. His odoriferous, colorific, and daisy-enamoured style.
