Forms: 3–6 colur, 4 colure, coulur, 4–7 coloure, 3– colour, 5– color. Also 4–7 collor, 5–6 colowr(e, 6 cooler, -ore, coulor(e, coullour, -or, cullor, -our, 6–7 coulour, -er, collour, culler. [Early ME. colur, later colour, color, a. OF. color, culur, colur, later colour, coulour (retained in AFr.), couleur (= Pr., Sp. color, It. colore):—L. colōr-em. Latin long ō passed in OF. into a very close sound intermediate between ō and ū, both of which letters, and subsequently the digraph ou, were used to express it; in an accented syllable the sound at length changed to ö written eu, whence mod.F. couleur. The OE. word was híw, HUE. Colour, corresponding to the late AFr., has been the normal spelling in Eng. from 14th c.; but color has been used occasionally, chiefly under L. influence, from 15th c., and is now the prevalent spelling in U.S.]
I. As a property or quality.
1. The quality or attribute in virtue of which objects present different appearances, to the eye, when considered with regard only to the kind of light reflected from their surfaces.
The particular color of a body depends upon the molecular constitution of its surface, as determining the character and number of the light-vibrations which it reflects. Subjectively, color may be viewed as the particular sensation produced by the stimulation of the optic nerve by particular light-vibrations. This sensation can also be induced by other means, such as pressure of the eye-ball, or an electric current.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIX. viii. (1495), 869. Colour accordyth to lyghte as the doughter to the moder.
c. 1532. Dewes, Introd. Fr., in Palsgr., 920. Colour is lyght incorporate in a body visyble pure & clene.
1594. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. 71. This part of light that is vpon thicke bodies, is called colour.
1764. Reid, Inquiry, VI. v. 179. Philosophers affirm that colour is not in bodies but in the mind; and the vulgar affirm that colour is not in the mind, but is a quality of bodies.
1856. Ruskin, Mod. Paint., III. IV. xiv. § 42. Colour is the most sacred element of all visible things.
1869. Tyndall, Notes on Light, 40. Colour is due to the extinction of certain constituents of the white light within the body, the remaining constituents which return to the eye imparting to the body its colour.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 274. Would you say that whiteness is colour or a colour?
2. A particular hue or tint, being one of the constituents into which white or ‘colorless’ light can be decomposed, the series of which constitutes the spectrum; also any mixture of these. In speaking of the colors of objects, black and white, in which the rays of light are respectively wholly absorbed and wholly reflected, are included.
Often used spec. of a hue or tint distinct from the prevailing tone, which may be black, white, or some positive color. Thus in Bot. it is specifically used of any hue save green, ‘white being regarded as a colour, and green not’ (Treas. Bot., 1866).
Accidental colo(u)rs, Complementary c.: see these words.
Colo(u)r of brightness: a yellowish color resulting from increased illumination.
Constants of colo(u)r: numbers for the comparative measurement of the purity, brightness and hue of colors.
Ecclesiastical or Liturgical colo(u)rs: the colors used in church-decoration or in ecclesiastical vestments.
Fundamental, Primary, or Simple colo(u)rs: formerly, the seven colors of the spectrum, viz. red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet; now, the three colors red, green and violet (or, with painters, red, yellow and blue), out of different combinations of which all the others are produced.
Secondary colo(u)rs: colors resulting from the mixture of two primary colors.
c. 1290. Lives Saints (1887), 216. And axede him of ȝwuch colur were heuene op-riȝt þere.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 9913 (Cott.). Thre colurs o sun-dri heu [Gött. colouris, Fairf. colours].
1483. Cath. Angl., 86. A Culoure, color. Of diuerse color, discolor.
1552–3. Inv. Ch. Goods Staffordsh., in Ann. Litchfield, IV. 60. One cope of dyvers colowres of sylke.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., IV. (1586), 167. Hee changeth … like the Chamælion, to al colours of the Rainebow.
1599. Thynne, Animadv. (1875), 48. Darkyshe Coolor.
1605. Camden, Rem., 6. Depainted … in the alehouse coulours.
1650. T. B., Worcester’s Apoph., 80. Various both in shape and coulours.
1671. Newton, in Phil. Trans., VI. 3081. Colours are … Original and connate properties, which in divers Rays are divers.
1796. H. Hunter, trans. St.-Pierre’s Stud. Nat. (1799), I. 511. The seven primitive colours. Ibid., II. 64. Two extreme colours, white and black.
1863. E. Atkinson, trans. Ganot’s Physics, § 555. From a mixture of red, green, and violet all possible colours may be constructed, and hence these three spectral colours are called the fundamental colours.
1884. Graphic, 8 Nov., 490/1. Grapes beginning to turn colour.
b. Heraldic tincture.
c. 1450. Holland, Howlat, 420. Off metallis and colouris in tentfull atyr.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, Her., A j a. It is shewyd by the forsayd colowris wych ben Worthy and wych ben Royall.
1659. Vulgar Errours Censured, v. § 10. 96. Colour upon Colour is ill Heraldry.
1766–87. Porny, Heraldry, 19. The Colours generally made use of in Heraldry are nine.
1882. Cussans, Hand-bk. Heraldry, 50. The tinctures employed in Heraldry are of three kinds: Metals, Colours, and Furs.
c. spec. The hue of the darker (as distinguished from the ‘white’) varieties of mankind; often in phrase, A person (man, etc.) of color: in America, esp. a person of negro blood.
[c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), vii. 24. Þe folk þat wones in þat cuntree er called Numidianes … þai er blakk of colour.]
1796. B. Edwards, St. Domingo, i. (1801), 25. Three great classes: 1st pure whites, 2nd people of colour … 3rd negroes and mulattoes…. The class which … is called people of colour originates from an intermixture of the whites and the blacks.
1798. Ferriar, Illustr. Sterne, ii. 43. Discussion of the causes of colour in negroes.
1803. Naval Chron., IX. 111. The Bermudian pilots are men of colour.
1883. Stevenson, Treasure Isl., II. vii. 57. She is a woman of colour.
1890. Pall Mall Gaz., 20 Jan., 2/1. Loudly did he bewail the difficulty of making ‘the colour’ stick to work.
d. fig., esp. in phrases, in which the literal sense is always present to the mind, as To cast or put false, lively, etc., colors upon; to paint in bright, dark, etc., colors; to see (a thing) in its true colors, etc.: cf. the senses under II.
1531. Elyot, Gov., I. xv. He wyll … sette a false colour of lernyng on propre wittes, whiche wyll be wasshed away with one shoure of raine.
1576. Fleming, Panoplie Ep., 377. To paint out that puisaunt Prince, in such lively colours as hee deserveth.
1699. Bentley, Phal., 540. He puts a false colour upon one part of his Argument.
1711. Vind. Sacheverell, 21. Charg’d with casting very odious and black Colours upon the Dissenters.
1737. Whiston, Josephus’ Antiq., XVI. vii. § 1. Desirous to put handsome colours on the death of Mariamne.
1797. Godwin, Enquirer, I. ii. 8. Exhibit things in their true colours.
1849. Grote, Greece, II. xlviii. (1862), IV. 275. The bright colours and tone of cheerful confidence, which pervade the discourse.
3. Of the face or skin: a. gen. Complexion, hue. To change color, († colors): (a) to turn pale; (b) rarely, to turn red, to blush.
1297. R. Glouc. (1724), 24. In þe World hire pere nas, So whit, ne of such colour.
c. 1300. K. Alis., 7315. Colour him chaungith sumdel for drede.
a. 1400[?]. Chester Pl. (Shaks. Soc.), 91. Yf shee be freshe of collor.
c. 1440. York Myst., xxx. 41. The coloure of my corse is full clere.
a. 1450. Le Morte Arth., 2816. The blode alle coueryd hys coloure.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. ccccl. 795. The duke a lytell chaunged colour.
1599. Greene, George a Greene, Wks. (1861), 255. His colour looketh discontent.
1634. Brereton, Trav. (Chetham Soc.), 5. So apprehensive of the danger, that he changed colours.
b. spec. The ruddy hue of the cheeks, freshness of hue, as in To lose, regain, etc., color. Said also of the ‘red face’ produced by blushing.
a. 1300. K. Horn, 16. He was whit so þe flur, Rose red was his colur.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 881. He cast al his colour and bi-com pale.
1483. Caxton, Cato, F iiij. They … lesen theyr colour and becomen sone olde.
1595. Shaks., John, IV. ii. 76. The colour of the king doth come, and go Betweene his purpose and his conscience.
1697. Vanbrugh, Relapse, III. iii. I need not ask you how you do, you have got so good a colour.
1708. Lond. Gaz., No. 4427/16. A little pock-fretten, sometimes a colour in his Face.
1848. Tennyson, Gard. Dau., 192. A word could bring the colour to my cheek.
1856. Dickens, Rogue’s Life, v. I saw her colour beginning to come back—the old bright glow returning to the … dusky cheeks.
4. spec. in Art. The general effect produced by all the colors of a picture; coloring. Dead color: the first laying-in of a painting.
1661. Pepys, Diary, 13 Dec. There she sat the first time to be drawn…. The dead colour of my wife is good above what I expected.
1784. J. Barry, Lect. Art, vi. (1848), 224. A slight general dead colour of the whole.
1812. Examiner, 24 May, 328/2. His chiaro-scuro and colour are … spread with so much amenity, that … harmony is the result.
1846. Ruskin, Mod. Paint., I. II. I. vii. § 21. A noble or brilliant work of colour. Ibid. (1851), Stones Ven., I. App. xvii. 392. No colour is so noble as the colour of a good painting.
fig. 1732. Pope, Ess. Man, II. 112. Lights and shades, whose well-accorded strife Gives all the strength and colour of our life.
1878. Morley, Carlyle, Crit. Misc. Ser. I. 189. To take all breadth, and colour … out of our judgments of men.
b. The representation of color by contrasts of light and dark in an engraving or monochrome.
1784. J. Barry, Lect. Art, vi. (1848), 219. What is called the colour of a print…. The phrase is improper and inaccurate…. What those meant who first adopted the phrase is the chiaroscuro, or light and dark, in contradistinction to mere light and shade.
1869. Daily News, 22 Dec., 5/4. By his manner of etching he [Cruikshank] is able to produce the most admirable effects of what engravers call ‘colour.’
5. Phrenol. Short for ‘Faculty or organ of color.’
1840. Penny Cycl., XVIII. 116/1. (List of phrenological organs) Colour, Locality, Calculation, Order.
1890. Mary O. Stanton, Syst. Physiog., I. 410. Color is a primitive faculty.
II. As a thing material.
6. (in pl.) A colored device, badge, or dress, serving to distinguish or identify an individual or the members of a party. In early use applied to the cognizance or insignia of a knight; now commonly of the colored symbols of colleges, clubs, jockeys, etc., and of the rosettes and ribbons worn as party-badges. Sometimes less concretely, as in ‘the Liberal colours here are blue and buff.’
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 5462. All hor colouris to ken were of clene yalow.
c. 1420. Anturs of Arth., xxx. The knyȝte in his colurs was armit ful clene.
1589. Pasquil’s Ret., D iij b. Aduance my collours on the top of the steeple.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., III. 215. Agitated with hope and fear, for the success of the colours which they espoused.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xxxi. The servants … wore the colours of the Prince’s household.
1852. Thackeray, Esmond, I. xii. (1876), 111. When heads of families fall out … their dependants wear the one or the other party’s colour.
1873. Slang Dict., Colour, a handkerchief worn by each of the supporters of a professional athlete on the day of a match.
Mod. Election Notice. Canvassers are requested to wear their colours.
fig. 1685. Baxter, Paraphr. N. T., Matt. iii. 13–4, note. He [Christ] … as the General will wear the same colours with his soldiers.
1885. Law Times, LXXIX. 339/2. The majority of his employés are of an opposite colour to himself.
b. In phrases, as To come out in one’s true colors, to show one’s colors, etc. To this sense prob. belong the earlier examples of To fight, etc., under false colors, which at a later date became associated with the next sense.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 11496. He set hom a cas, What fortune might falle vndur fals colour.
a. 1688. Bunyan, Jerusalem Sinner Saved (1886), 81. Feign not … but go in thy colours to Jesus Christ.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, lxv. 294. [He] who didn’t venture … to come out in his true colours.
1884. Gladstone, in Standard, 29 Feb., 2/7. The franchise legislation has opponents who may find some difficulty in showing their colours.
7. (gen. in pl.) A flag, ensign or standard of a regiment or a ship. In quots. 1667, 1719 a colours occurs: mod. military use has a color.
1590. Sir J. Smyth, Disc. Weapons, 2 b. Their Ensignes they will not call by that name, but by the name of Colours.
1593. Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., II. ii. 173. Sound Trumpets, let our bloody Colours waue.
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, II. i. 20. Wé English-men do call them [ensigns] of late Colours, by reason of the variety of colours they be made of.
1626. Capt. Smith, Accid. Yng. Sea-men, 17. A suite of sayles,… pendants and colours.
1667. Earl Orrery, State Lett. (1743), II. 163. It is a grief to me … that a viscount should, only to live, carry a colours.
1695. Lond. Gaz., No. 3042/2. To go out with Colours Flying and Drums Beating.
1702. Addison, Medals, I. Misc. Wks. 1726, III. 25 (J.). I have read an Author of this taste that compares a ragged Coin to a tattered Colours.
1720. Lond. Gaz., No. 5839/1. She went a cruizing under Spanish Colours.
1799. Wellington, in Gurw., Disp., I. 31. In less than 10 minutes … the British colors were planted on the summit of the breach.
1802. Home, Hist. Reb. Scot., iii. The standard … was about twice the size of an ordinary pair of colours.
1830. Campbell, Dict. Mil. Sc., 39. Colours … are the two silken flags carried by the Senior Ensigns in each Regiment of Infantry. The first, called the King’s Colour … the Second, or Regimental Colour.
1832. Southey, Hist. Penins. War, III. 738. Downie, seizing a colour, and waving it.
1836. Marryat, Midsh. Easy, xxx. The stranger had hoisted the English colours.
fig. 1598. Shaks., Merry W., III. iv. 85. I must aduance the colours of my loue.
1692. Bentley, Boyle Lect., ix. 307. They fight under Jewish colours.
b. Hence applied to the regiment. Now obs. except as retained in the expressions To join the colours, desert one’s colours, etc., referred to prec.
1590. Sir J. Smyth, Disc. Weapons, 2/6. Colours … is by them so fondlie & ignorantly given, as if they … should (in stead of Ensignes) be asked how manie Colours of footmen there were in the Armie.
1633. T. Stafford, Pac. Hib. (1821), 197. Or else to repayre to his Colours. Ibid., 337. The Enemy … marched with fiue and twentie Colours towards the Towne.
1646. Vicars, God’s Ark, in Carlyle, Cromwell (1871), I. 155. Being 74 Colours of horse, and 21 colours of Dragoons, in all 95 colours.
1722. De Foe, Col. Jack (1840), 126. I … was run from my colours.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 297–8. A soldier … deserting his colours, incurred no legal penalty at all.
c. An ensign’s commission, ensigncy: generally a pair of colors. arch.
1722. De Foe, Col. Jack (1840), 113. 100l. being sufficient to buy colours in any new regiment.
1747. Garrick, Miss in her Teens, I. Purchas’d me a pair of colours at my own request.
1856. J. W. Cole, Brit. Gen. Penins. War, I. i. 7. An ensigncy, or, as it is figuratively called, a pair of colours, in the 51st.
1871. ‘Holme Lee,’ Miss Barrington, I. vi. 84. Wait till this little Jack of yours gets a pair of colours.
d. In various phrases, originally literal, as † To fear no colors, to fear no foe, hence gen. to have no fear; To come off with flying colors; To stick to one’s colors; To nail one’s colors to the mast; To hang out false colors, etc.
1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, E iv b. I perceiue thou fearest no colours.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., I. v. 10. I can tell thee where yt saying was borne, of I feare no colours … In the warrs.
1682. N. O., Boileau’s Lutrin, II. 175. Come, fear no Colours! The end the Act will hallow!
1692. Locke, Toleration, III. viii. It may … bring a Man off with flying Colours.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 52, ¶ 3. Our Female Candidate … will no longer hang out false Colours.
1844. Sir R. Peel, in Croker Papers (1884), III. xxiii. 15. I never heard him [Ashburton] make a speech in the course of which he did not nail, unnail, renail, and unnail again his colours.
1885. Pall Mall Gaz., 5 Nov., 7/1. The obstinacy with which Prince Alexander is sticking to his colours. Ibid. (1888), 10 Nov., 11/1. He hastened … to nail his colours to the compromise of 1870.
8. A coloring matter, pigment, paint (see quot. 1859). With many defining words (which see), as adjective-, body-, broken-, fresco-, ground-, moist-, oil-, spirit-, substantive-, water-colo(u)r, etc.
1580. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 445. They increase their fauours with faire water, you maintaine yours with painters colours.
1626. Bacon, Sylva (1677), § 298. Painters colours ground, and Ashes, do better incorporate with Oyl.
1660. T. Willsford, Scales Commerce, II. IV. 26. Common colours, as red Oaker, Umber, red and white Lead, [etc.].
1721. Lond. Gaz., No. 5962/3. Mr. Le Blon gives Notice, That … Pictures … Printed in Colours, after his new Invention, under His Majesty’s Letters Patents … are … to be sold.
1784. J. Barry, Lect. Art, vi. (1848), 217. Compound, half, or broken colour which soften and still their difference.
1859. Gullick & Timbs, Paint., 23, note. ‘Colours’ are generally understood to mean the pigments applied to the picture.
9. pl. Colored dresses or dress-materials.
1716–8. Lady M. W. Montague, Lett., I. x. 35. The … maids of honour … she suffers to go in colours.
10. Mining. (See quots.)
1859. Cornwallis, New World, I. 118. Carts … going to the creek to have the colour—that is to say, the gold washed out.
1876. J. Weiss, Wit, Hum. & Shaks., ii. 39. Miners in the West use the word ‘color’ for the finest gold in the ground.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., Color … A particle of metallic gold … Prospectors say, e.g., ‘The dirt gave me so many colors to the panful.’
b. Cf. the following colloquial use (sense 2).
1718. Gordon, in Cordial Low Spirits, 33. I have never seen the colour of Mr. Baskett’s money.
1852. Dickens, Bleak Ho., II. 25 (Hoppe). He had never yet seen the colour of his money.
III. Figurative senses.
11. Outward appearance, show, aspect, semblance of (something): generally (as in 12), that which serves to conceal or cloak the truth, or to give a show of justice to what is in itself unjustifiable. Often in Colo(u)r of Law, Colo(u)r of Reason.
1297. R. Glouc. (1724), 313. To bynyme hem her erytage … myd wuch treson, bote he adde som colour of ryȝte.
c. 1325. Poem temp. Edw. II. (Camden Soc.), 280. Al his contrefaiture is colour of sinne.
1530. Proper Dyaloge (1863), 28. This hath no coloure of almesse.
1597. Bacon (title), A Table of Coulers, or apparances of good and euill.
1642. J. M[arsh], Argt. conc. Militia, 22. To defend them, without any colour of Law or justice.
1754. Sherlock, Disc. (1759), I. x. 296. With what Colour of Reason can the pretended Miracles be brought into this Question?
1863. H. Cox, Instit., I. ix. 218. The general heads of breaches of privilege … are these three:—‘1st, Evasion. 2nd, Force. 3rd, Colour of Law.’
b. A fiction, an allegory.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., IX. i. They beleve in no maner of wyse That under a colour a trouth may aryse.
12. A show of reason; a specious or plausible reason or ground; fair pretence, pretext, cloak.
1429. Archives Grocer’s Comp., II. 190. Þt no man selle no ware uppon no Sonday nor uppon none haly daye … by no manner of colour þat may be devysed.
1592. Greene, Upst. Courtier, in Harl. Misc. (Malh.), II. 244. You carrie your pack but for a coulour to shadow your other villanies.
1617. Fletcher, Valentinian, IV. iii. 8. What has Aecius done, to be destroy’d? At least, I would have a colour. You have more … he is a traitor.
1765. Burke, Corr. (1844), I. 64. No man should have even a colour to assert that I received a compensation.
1817. Jas. Mill, Brit. India, II. IV. v. 166. An enterprise … which … afforded a colour for detaining the troops.
† b. Sometimes the meaning became simply ‘allegeable ground or reason,’ excuse. Obs.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 432. Ȝif a prest myȝte be two men … it were to hym a coulur to take ful hire of two men.
c. 1460. Fortescue, Abs. & Lim. Mon. (1714), 107. Havyng no Colour of grutchyng.
1529. More, Comf. agst. Trib. (1573), 50. In these two things may you catche most colour to compare the wealthy man’s merite with the merite of tribulation.
1616. Beaum. & Fl., Knt. Malta, I. i. 18. Did I attempt her with a thread-bare name … She might with colour disallow my suit.
1724. A. Collins, Gr. Chr. Relig., 208. For which he has as little Colour, as the Samaritans themselves.
c. esp. in Law. An apparent or prima facie right, as in Colour of title. Sometimes in a bad sense, as in Colour of office: see quot. 1641. Also spec., in Pleading, ‘a probable but really false plea, the design of which was to draw the decision of the case from the jury to the judges, by making the point to be decided appear to be one of law and not of fact’: see quots. 1607 and 1824.
[1366. Year-Bk. 40 Edw. III. (1679), 23. Kirton. Le plee n’est pas ascun maner de barre, car il n’ad conus en nous ascun maner de colour.]
1531. Dial. on Laws Eng., II. liv. (1638), 163. The plaintife claiming by a colour of a deed of feoffement.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 175. Robert de Bruce … although he had some colour of title, yet he discended of the second daughter … and so his clayme tooke no place.
1574. trans. Littleton’s Tenures, 86 a. He hathe colour of enter as heyre to his father.
1584. Powel, Lloyd’s Cambria, 74. I could never find what Coulor or Pretense of title this [man] had.
1607. Cowell, Interpr. (1637), Colour, signifieth in the common law a probable plee but in truth false, and hath this end to draw the triall of the cause from the jury to the judges.
1641. Termes de la Ley, 65. Colour of Office … signifies an act evill done by the countenance of an Office … whereas the office is but a vaile to the falshood.
1721. St. German’s Doctor & Stud., 337. The two questions before rehearsed of colours in Assise.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., III. 309. An appearance or colour of title, bad indeed in point of law, but of which the jury are not competent judges.
1824. H. J. Stephen, Pleading (1843), 233. The meaning of the rule that pleadings in confession and avoidance should give colour, is that they should confess the matter adversely alleged, to such an extent at least as to admit some apparent right in the opposite party which requires to be encountered and avoided by the allegation of new matter.
1886. F. W. Maitland, in Law. Q. Rev., Oct., 483. Possession coupled with … good faith and colour of title … would have certain legal effects.
d. Phrases. Under color of: under pretext or pretence of, under the mask or alleged authority of. † Also with by, in, upon, with color. Without color: without dissembling or disguise.
c. 1340. Hampole, Psalter cxix. 2. Swikil tunge [lingua dolosa] … þat vndire colour of goed counsaile bryngis til syn.
1401. Pol. Poems (1859), II. 16. Antichrist … by colour of holines … deceiving Christs church.
1461. Paston Lett., No. 384, II. 4. Brybers that wold a robbed a ship undyr color of my Lord of Warwyk.
1494. Fabyan, VII. 473. Without fraude, colour, or disceyte.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. xlvi. 63. He sent vnto them a prelate vnder the colour of the pope. Ibid., I. ccccix. 712. The king … may … assemble great puyssaunce … in the colour of this treatie.
1553. Q. Mary, in Strype, Eccl. Mem., III. App. i. 3. By colour of the authority of the same King.
a. 1556. Cranmer, Wks., I. 21. Answer me directly without colour, whether it be so or not.
1582. N. Lichefield, trans. Castaneda’s Hist. E. Ind., 866. The Moores contrarie to his commaundement had bought spices vnder a coulour.
1590. Marlowe, Edw. II., I. iv. Wks. (Rtldg.), 191/2. Then may we with some colour rise in arms.
1591. Shaks., Two Gent., IV. ii. 3. Vnder the colour of commending him.
1611. Bible, Acts xxvii. 30. They had let downe the boat into the sea, vnder colour as though they would have cast ancres of the fore-ship.
a. 1718. Penn, Life, Wks. 1726, I. 27. It is the worst oppression that is done by Colour of justice.
1732. Berkeley, Alciphr., V. § 10. There have been received, under the colour of religion, a world of fables.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Manch. Strike, ix. 108. A present … given under colour of enabling him to appear more respectably.
e. To give color: to give a specious appearance or verisimilitude; to afford ground or pretext; † to take color with: to side ostensibly with (cf. the verb, sense 6).
1771. Wesley, Wks. (1872), V. 454. St. Paul … gives you no colour for making void the law.
1776. P. Schuyler, in Sparks, Corr. Amer. Rev. (1853), I. 249. Your Excellency’s instructions to him gave … not the least color for it.
1790. Paley, Horæ Paul., i. 2. In order to give colour and probability to the fraud.
1845–6. Trench, Huls. Lect., Ser. II. ii. 171. The slightest hint that seems to give a colour to this hope.
1861. Maine, Anc. Law, iv. 110. The Emperor … was forced to take colour with the church against the reformers.
13. pl. Rhetorical modes or figures; ornaments of style or diction, embellishments. (Cf. Scaliger Poet. lib. III. c. xxx.) Now only as fig.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Sqr.’s T., 31. It muste ben a Rethor excellent, That coude his colours longing for that art, If he shuld hire descriven ony part. Ibid., Frankl. Prol., 51. I lerned neuere Rethorik … Colours ne knowe I none.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., II. xviii. 256. Colouris and figuris of spechis.
c. 1460. Sir R. Ros, La Belle Dame Sans Mercy, 844, in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866), 80. Ful destitute of eloquence, of metre, and of coloures.
1586. A. Day, Eng. Secretary, II. (1625), 77. A Scheme … for the excellency thereof is called the ornament, light and colours of Rhetoricall speech.
1779. Johnson, L. P., Milton (1816), 137. The colours of the diction seem not sufficiently discriminated.
1876. Trevelyan, Life & Lett. Macaulay, I. i. 16. Novelists who have more colours in their vocabulary than Turner had on his palette.
† 14. In 16–17th c. Sc. writers: Rhythm, metre.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, I. Prol. 354. Sum tyme the colour will caus a litle additioun.
1560. Rolland, Crt. Venus, IV. 740. Haltand verse quhair cullour dois nat hald.
1585. James I., Ess. Poesie (Arb.), 57. First, ze sall keip iust cullouris.
1619. Drumm. of Hawth., Conv. B. Jonson, Wks. 224. He … said, that verses stood by sense, without either colours or accent.
15. Music. ‘Clang-tint’ (see CLANG sb. 3), timbre. Also, more generally, variety of expression in a musical composition (cf. next).
1597. Morley, Introd. Mus., 166. To admit great absurdities in his musicke, altering both time, tune, cullour, ayre and what soeuer else.
1866. Engel, Nat. Mus., v. 179. Almost every instrument has its peculiar colour of sound.
1876. Bernstein’s Five Senses, 247. Still they give to the fundamental tone a peculiar character: its quality or colour.
1887. Daily Tel., 14 Oct., 3/4. He has a keen sense of orchestral effect, a capital eye for colour [etc.].
1890. Glasgow Her., 19 May, 9/2. New theories as to the causes of the varieties of tone colour or ‘timbre’ of different musical instruments.
16. (an extension of sense 11). General ‘complexion’ or tone; character, kind.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., I. ii. 107. You haue lost much good sport. Sport: of what colour! Ibid., III. ii. 435. Boyes and women are for the most part, cattle of this colour. Ibid. (1605), Lear, II. ii. 145. This is a Fellow of the selfe same colour [Qq. nature], Our Sister speakes of.
1663. J. Spencer, Prodigies (1665), 337. The Reason he gives … is much of color with that of our Adversaries.
1781. J. Moore, View Soc. It. (1790), II. xlvii. 26. [The books] formed a strong contrast with the colour of his mind.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, xxxvii. Pendennis … took his colour very readily from his neighbour.
1870. Stanhope, Hist. Eng., I. i. 15. This first triumph of the Tories gave as it were its colour to the entire Session.
b. The shade of meaning associated with words.
1657. Cromwell, Sp., 13 April (Carlyle). Nor can it be urged that my words have the least colour that way.
1822. Procter (B. Cornwall), Poems, Love cured by Kindness. Words of an opposite colour.
1826. Syd. Smith, Wks. (1859), II. 119/1. Conversations … to which he could have given another colour and complexion.
IV. Attrib. and Comb.
17. General: as colo(u)r-brilliance, -chart, -chord, -contrast, -diagram, -equation, -faculty, -melody, -music, -note, -perception, -stimulus, -suite, -tone, -vision, -word, etc.; colo(u)r-fading adj. Also (see 2 c) colo(u)r-domination, -dread; (in sense 8) colo(u)r-bag, -case, -lake, -maker, -making, -manufactory, -mill, -seller; colo(u)r-washed adj.; (in sense 7) colo(u)r-bearer, -chest, -service, etc.
1841–4. Emerson, Ess. Art, Wks. (Bohn), I. 152. They console themselves with *colour-bags and blocks of marble.
1862. W. M. Rossetti, in Fraser’s Mag., July, 74. The multiplicity and *Colour-brilliance of the Scene.
1856. Lever, Martins of Cro’ M., 482. Hold that *colour-case for me.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., *Colour-chests, chests appropriated to the reception of flags for making signals.
1884. St. James’ Gaz., 10 May, 6/2. A warm green, which, with the red gold of her hair, makes up a *colour-chord as simple as it is effective.
1889. J. J. Thomas, Froudacity, 193–4. The fatal objection to all Mr. Froude’s advocacy of *colour-domination is that it is futile from being morally unreasonable. Ibid., 199. To re-infuse the ancient *colour-dread into minds which had formerly been forced to entertain it.
1879. Rood, Chromatics, xvii. 298. A delicate *colour-emphasis is by no means easy of attainment.
1600. Dr. Dodypoll, I. i. in Bullen, O. Pl., III. 103. Women with their *coullour-fading cheekes.
1886. trans. Benedikt’s Chem. Coal-tar Colours, 26. Generally known as a *colour-lake and not as a colouring matter proper.
1552. Huloet, Dict., s.v. *Coloure maker, colorificus.
1794. G. Adams, Nat. & Exp. Philos., II. xx. 370. The arts of *colour-making and dyeing.
1796. Hull Advertiser, 12 March, 2/1. Buildings now used as a *Colour Manufactory…. Also the *Colour Mill and Utensils.
1879. Rood, Chromatics, xviii. 316. The poetry of colour which leads the artist … to seize on *colour-melodies as they occur in nature.
1879. G. Allen, Col. Sense, i. 2. The growth of a distinctive *colour-perception.
1708. Lond. Gaz., No. 4486/4. Francis Moore … *Colour-seller.
1884. Sir F. S. Roberts, in 19th Cent., June, 1063. The period of *colour-service was raised to seven years for soldiers at home.
1862. R. H. Patterson, Ess. Hist. & Art, 15. (What every one who has pressed his fingers upon his eyes must know) that sensations of colour may be excited … independently of any *colour-stimulus.
1817. R. Jameson, Char. Min., 83. A *Colour-Suite of Minerals, made under the eye of Werner.
1875. trans. Vogel’s Chem. Light, vii. 60. The small number of the *colour-tones compared with the large number of musical tones is very striking.
1882. Syd. Soc. Lex., *Colour vision, the recognition of colour by the eye.
1887. Daily News, 29 June, 5/8. Apartments … *colour-washed in several shades of pale grey and chocolate.
18. Special combs.: Colo(u)r-guard, in a U.S. infantry regiment, a guard for the colors consisting of eight corporals and the color-bearer; colour-hearing (see quot.); colo(u)r-line, (a.) on seals or engravings, fine parallel lines indicating color or tincture. (b.) esp. in U.S., the line of demarcation between the colored and the white race; colour-party, the party consisting of two junior officers assisted by four serjeants, who carry the colors of a regiment; colo(u)r-piece, a piece of bric-a-brac, or the like, introduced into a room, etc., for the sake of its coloring; colo(u)r-printing, printing in different colors, chromatic printing: hence colo(u)r-print, -printer; colo(u)r-sense, the sense of color, the power of discriminating colors; colo(u)r-striker, a practical color-maker; a maker of chemical colors (cf. STRIKE); colo(u)r-top, a top of which the upper surface is painted with the colors of the spectrum, or some of them, in order to show the effects of their combination during its rapid revolution. See also COLOUR-BLIND, -BOX, -DE-ROY, -DOCTOR, -MAN, -SERGEANT.
1823. Crabb, Technol. Dict., *Color-guard.
1882. Times, 12 Jan., 5/6. *Colour-hearing…. A phenomenon of which some few people are conscious—viz., an appearance of certain colours accompanying the perception of notes or noises.
1878. J. Parton, in N. Amer. Rev., CXXVII. 491. We shall soon cease to hear of a *color-line.
1862. Catal. Intern. Exhib., IV. 15/2. Lithographic *oil-colour-print. Ibid. Establishment for *oil-colour-printing.
1869. Eng. Mech., 31 Dec., 377/2. Colour-printing has now been brought to great perfection.
1879. G. Allen (title), The *Colour-Sense.
1880. Geiger’s Developm. Hum. Race, 49. The history of colour-sense is of paramount importance to the total development of sensation.
1856. Maxwell, in Rep. Brit. Assoc., Trans. of Sections, 13. *Colour-top.
1886. Athenæum, 21 Aug., 242/2. The mixture of colours apart from the mixture of pigments … is best illustrated by the use of the well-known colour-top.
† Colour sb.2 Obs. = CULLY.
1719. D’Urfey, Pills, V. 24. And all my wealth they took by stealth, Thus was a poor Colour trick’d.
