polychromatic, a.
(ˌpɒlɪkrəʊˈmætɪk)
[f. poly- + chromatic: see below. Cf. Gr. πολυχρώµατ-ος many-coloured.]
1. a. Having or characterized by various colours; many-coloured.
polychromatic acid (Chem.): = polychromic acid, q.v.
| 1849 Freeman Archit. i. i. 40 The polychromatic effect..was sought after in these early times. 1884 T. Walden in Harper's Mag. Aug. 434/2 The glory of polychromatic decoration. 1895 Contemp. Rev. Oct. 479 A ‘polychromatic edition of the Old Testament’ is being published in America. |
b. Of radiation: containing a number of wavelengths, not monochromatic.
| 1935 H. Harris Metallic Arc Welding iii. 13 Asterism is caused by the diffraction of a polychromatic X-ray beam by a deformed crystal. 1976 Nature 12 Aug. 541/2 A parallel beam of white (polychromatic) radiation falls on an oriented sample. |
2. Med. = polychromatophil a.; esp. as polychromatic normoblast, an immature erythrocyte. Cf. polychromasic a.
| 1899 Jrnl. R. Microsc. Soc. 379 Polychromatic normoblasts which become violet in eosin and methylen-blue and red in triacid. 1935 [see polychromasia]. 1938 W. Magner Textbk. Hematol. i. 4 Normoblasts showing this mixture of red and blue in their cytoplasm are known as polychromatic normoblasts. 1958 G. C. de Gruchy Clin. Haematol. ii. 43 Polychromatic cells are young red cells which have not yet completely lost their ribose nucleic acid; they are normally present in only small numbers in the peripheral blood (0·2–2·0 per cent). 1973 B. A. Brown Hematol. ii. 28/1 The production of heme and globin takes place independently of each other, beginning in the polychromatic normoblast, and ending in the reticulocyte stage. |
So polychromatist (-ˈkrəʊmətɪst), one who uses, or favours the use of, many colours (in painting or decoration); polyˈchromatize v. trans., to paint or adorn with many colours; polyˈchromatous a., many-coloured.
| 1849 Ecclesiologist IX. 160 It is slightly polychromatized. 1854 Blackw. Mag. LXXVI. 319 The new professors, polychromatists, must bring out..new editions of all our classics. 1889 Daily News 22 Jan. 3/7 Paris is now the most polychromatous city in the world... General Boulanger..changes the colour of his posters. He has had every shade of green, of yellow, of orange, of grey, and red from pink to magenta. |