three-colour, a.
(stress variable)
[three a.]
1. Utilizing or involving three distinct colours or wavelengths of light, usu. as a means of reproducing any desired colour by a combination of three primary colours in appropriate proportions. Cf. trichromatic a.
| 1893 Jrnl. Soc. Arts 19 May 669/1 This three-colour print, a reproduction of a chromo-lithograph. 1898 Daily News 15 Oct. 6/3 A very cheap way of producing..necessary block for three-colour printing. 1902 Daily Chron. 10 Jan. 6/6 Methods of colour-photography,..the ‘three-colour process’ invented by Professor Lippman. 1906 [see additive a. c]. 1932 R. C. Bayley Compl. Photographer xxiv. 291 The amateur who makes his own three-colour prints. 1972 [see psychophysical a.]. 1978 Pasachoff & Kutner University Astron. iii. 55 Thousands of stars have had their colors measured with this UBV set of filters; we call the process three-color photometry... A four-color system, uvby, has ultraviolet, violet, blue and yellow filters. |
2. Designating san ts'ai ware; also ellipt. as n.
| 1933 Burlington Mag. Nov. 211/1 The early Ming three-colour ware. 1959, 1972 [see san ts'ai]. |