Colours

Accidental colours. Those colours seen on a white ground after looking for some time at a bright-coloured object, like the sun.

“The colour transmitted is always complementary to the one reflected.”—Brewster: Optics, xii.

Fundamental colours. The seven colours of the spectrum: violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red. Or red, yellow, blue, also called primary or simple colours.

Secondary colours. Those which result from the mixture of two or more primary or simple colours.

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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.