chromatic, a. (and n.)
(krəʊˈmætɪk)
Also 7 cromatick, 7–8 chromatique.
[ad. L. chrōmaticus or Gr. χρωµατικ-ός (chiefly in the musical sense), f. χρῶµα colour. Cf. F. chromatique.]
A. adj. I. Pertaining to colour.
1. Of or belonging to colour or colours; consisting of or produced by colour. (Chiefly a scientific technical term.)
| 1841–44 Emerson Ess. Nom. & Realist Wks. (Bohn) I. 251, I read for the lustres, as if one should use a fine picture in a chromatic experiment, for its rich colours. 1862 Tyndall Mountaineer. xii. 97 The chromatic splendours of our atmosphere. 1869 G. H. Napheys Phys. Life Woman iv. (1878) 322 Chromatic memory, or the memory of colors. 1870 H. Macmillan Bible Teach. vii. 149 Though green is the prevailing hue..yet the whole chromatic scale may be seen illustrated in the foliage of plants. |
b. chromatic aberration: the non-convergence of the different coloured constituents of white light to one focus, when refracted through a lens (see aberration 6); also called chromatic dispersion. chromatic function: see quot. 1879. chromatic printing: printing from blocks or types inked with various colours.
| 1831 Brewster Optics ix. §66. 80 The extreme red rays..will be found to have their focus in R..the extreme violet rays..will be refracted to a focus V much nearer the lens..The distance VR is called the chromatic aberration. 1837 Goring & Pritchard Microgr. 177 The second defect, chromatic dispersion, arising from the unequal refrangibility of the light. 1879 tr. Semper's Anim. Life 91 Pouchet applied the term chromatic function to that adaptation of colour to the surroundings of the creature which is indirectly the result of sight. 1881 Carpenter Microscope i. 13 The Chromatic error is scarcely perceptible. |
2. Full of colour, brightly or highly coloured.
| 1864 Sala in Daily Tel. 23 Dec., Magnificently varied tints, now dazzlingly chromatic, now mellow. 1876 J. Ellis Caesar in Egypt 30 Along the floor, Chromatic, tesselate with marbles rare. 1880 Print. Trades Jrnl. xxxi. 6 The cover still retains its rich chromatic character. |
† 3. App. transl. Gr. χρωµατικός, ‘in Rhetoric, florid, elaborate, artificial’ (Liddell & Scott).
| 1652 Urquhart Jewel Wks. (1834) 292 Figurative expressions, whether..paradiastolary, antipophoretick, cromatick, or any other way of figuring a speech by opposition. |
4. See quot. [cf. Isidore x. 45 Chromaticus, quia non confunditur, nec colorem mutat.]
| 1656 Blount Glossogr., Chromatick (chromaticus) that never blusheth, whose colour never changeth. 1678 in Phillips. 1721 in Bailey. |
II. Music.
5. a. The name given to one of the three kinds of tetrachords in Greek music, the others being the diatonic and the enharmonic. b. In modern music: Pertaining to or including notes which do not belong to the diatonic scale; admitting notes which are marked with accidentals, and are not normal to the scale of the passage where they occur, but which do not cause modulation.
chromatic scale: a scale which proceeds by semitones. chromatic semitone: the interval between a note and the same note flattened or sharpened; e.g. A—A{sharp}, B♭—B.
| [1597 Morley Introd. Mus. Annot., Practicall Musicke..is of three kindes: Diatonicum, Chromaticum, and Enharmonicum. 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 682 Agathon..first brought up the Chromaticke musicke. Ibid. Gloss., Chromaticke Musicke, was soft, delicate and effeminate, ful of descant, fained voices and quavering, as some are of opinion. ? 1630 Milton At a Solemn Music MS. reading (T.), Those harsh chromatick jars Of sin that all our musick mars. 1674 Playford Skill Mus. iii. 35 The second Note..made flat by the cromatick flat sign. 1680 Butler Rem. (1759) I. 180 His wild Irish and chromatic Tones. 1693 Shadwell Volunteers iii. (1720) IV. 440 Ah, that's fine, that's chromatick: I love chromatick musick mightily. 1694 Phil. Trans. XVIII. 72 A Ring of Bells tuned to Chromatick Intervals. 1742 Pope Dunc. iv. 55 Chromatic tortures soon shall drive them hence. a 1789 Burney Hist. Mus. (ed. 2) I. i. 25 The regular chromatic scale consisted of semitones and minor thirds. 1845 E. Holmes Mozart 116 The ‘Crucifixus’..often displays chromatic harmony, wrought up to the highest pitch of the awful and sublime. 1881 Macfarren Counterp. iii. 5 A scale is chromatic when the seven diatonic notes are interspersed with the five inflected notes. |
c. transf. of persons, etc.
| 1711 Addison Spect. No. 29 ¶13 Musick is not design'd to please only Chromatick Ears, but all that are capable of distinguishing harsh from disagreeable Notes. 1774 Foote in Westm. Mag. II. 376 From squeaking Monarchs and Chromatic Queens..I come. |
B. quasi-n.
† 1. Painting. The art of colouring. Obs.
| 1695 Dryden tr. Dufresnoy (J.), The third part of painting, which is called the chromatick or colouring. 1761 Brit. Mag. II. 541 Zeuxis..excelled all his contemporaries in the chromatique, or art of colouring. |
2. chromatics. The science of colour.
| c 1790 J. Imison Sch. Art i. 199 Optics..consist of three parts, viz. Catoptrics, Dioptrics, and Chromatics. 1870 H. Macmillan Bible Teach. i. 17 Sidereal chromatics have become a distinct branch of study. 1881 Knowledge No. 5. 98 A statement..with respect to..the solar spectrum..set forth in other similar works upon chromatics. |
3. pl. Chromatic notes, harmonies, etc.
| 1708 Kersey, Chromaticks, a pleasant and delightful sort of Musick. 1794 J. Wolcott (P. Pindar) Wks. III. 236 The ear with harsh chromatics must be teas'd, Grown much too fashionable to be pleas'd. 1833 Athenæum 16 Nov. 762, I play the flute—she heeds not my chromatics. |