Accidental or Subjective Colours

Those which depend on the state of our eye, and not those which the object really possesses. Thus, after looking at the bright sun, all objects appear dark; that dark colour is the accidental colour of the bright sun. When, again, we come from a dark room, all objects at first have a yellow tinge. This is especially the case if we wear blue glasses, for a minute or two after we have taken them off.

The accidental colour of red is bluish green, of orange dark blue, of violet yellow, of black white; and the converse.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.