primary colors
 原色


 Pri·ma·ry a.
 1. First in order of time or development or in intention; primitive; fundamental; original.
    The church of Christ, in its primary institution.   --Bp. Pearson.
    These I call original, or primary, qualities of body.   --Locke.
 2. First in order, as being preparatory to something higher; as, primary assemblies; primary schools.
 3. First in dignity or importance; chief; principal; as, primary planets; a matter of primary importance.
 4. Geol. Earliest formed; fundamental.
 5. Chem. Illustrating, possessing, or characterized by, some quality or property in the first degree; having undergone the first stage of substitution or replacement.
 Primary alcohol Organic Chem., any alcohol which possess the group CH2.OH, and can be oxidized so as to form a corresponding aldehyde and acid having the same number of carbon atoms; -- distinguished from secondary ∧ tertiary alcohols.
 Primary amine Chem., an amine containing the amido group, or a derivative of ammonia in which only one atom of hydrogen has been replaced by a basic radical; -- distinguished from secondary ∧ tertiary amines.
 Primary amputation Surg., an amputation for injury performed as soon as the shock due to the injury has passed away, and before symptoms of inflammation supervene.
 Primary axis Bot., the main stalk which bears a whole cluster of flowers.
 Primary colors. See under Color.
 Primary meeting, a meeting of citizens at which the first steps are taken towards the nomination of candidates, etc. See Caucus.
 Primary pinna Bot., one of those portions of a compound leaf or frond which branch off directly from the main rhachis or stem, whether simple or compounded.
 Primary planets. Astron. See the Note under Planet.
 Primary qualities of bodies, such are essential to and inseparable from them.
 Primary quills Zool., the largest feathers of the wing of a bird; primaries.
 Primary rocks Geol., a term early used for rocks supposed to have been first formed, being crystalline and containing no organic remains, as granite, gneiss, etc.; -- called also primitive rocks. The terms Secondary, Tertiary, and Quaternary rocks have also been used in like manner, but of these the last two only are now in use.
 Primary salt Chem., a salt derived from a polybasic acid in which only one acid hydrogen atom has been replaced by a base or basic radical.
 Primary syphilis Med., the initial stage of syphilis, including the period from the development of the original lesion or chancre to the first manifestation of symptoms indicative of general constitutional infection.
 Primary union Surg., union without suppuration; union by the first intention.


 Pris·mat·ic Pris·mat·ic·al a.
 1. Resembling, or pertaining to, a prism; as, a prismatic form or cleavage.
 2. Separated or distributed by a prism; formed by a prism; as, prismatic colors.
 3. Crystallog. Same as Orthorhombic.
 Prismatic borax Chem., borax crystallized in the form of oblique prisms, with ten molecules of water; -- distinguished from octahedral borax.
 Prismatic colors Opt., the seven colors into which light is resolved when passed through a prism; primary colors. See Primary colors, under Color.
 Prismatic compass Surv., a compass having a prism for viewing a distant object and the compass card at the same time.
 Prismatic spectrum Opt., the spectrum produced by the passage of light through a prism.

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 Col·or n. [Written also colour.]
 1. A property depending on the relations of light to the eye, by which individual and specific differences in the hues and tints of objects are apprehended in vision; as, gay colors; sad colors, etc.
 Note: ☞ The sensation of color depends upon a peculiar function of the retina or optic nerve, in consequence of which rays of light produce different effects according to the length of their waves or undulations, waves of a certain length producing the sensation of red, shorter waves green, and those still shorter blue, etc. White, or ordinary, light consists of waves of various lengths so blended as to produce no effect of color, and the color of objects depends upon their power to absorb or reflect a greater or less proportion of the rays which fall upon them.
 2. Any hue distinguished from white or black.
 3. The hue or color characteristic of good health and spirits; ruddy complexion.
    Give color to my pale cheek.   --Shak.
 4. That which is used to give color; a paint; a pigment; as, oil colors or water colors.
 5. That which covers or hides the real character of anything; semblance; excuse; disguise; appearance.
    They had let down the boat into the sea, under color as though they would have cast anchors out of the foreship.   --Acts xxvii. 30.
 That he should die is worthy policy;
 But yet we want a color for his death.   --Shak.
 6. Shade or variety of character; kind; species.
    Boys and women are for the most part cattle of this color.   --Shak.
 7. A distinguishing badge, as a flag or similar symbol (usually in the plural); as, the colors or color of a ship or regiment; the colors of a race horse (that is, of the cap and jacket worn by the jockey).
    In the United States each regiment of infantry and artillery has two colors, one national and one regimental.   --Farrow.
 8. Law An apparent right; as where the defendant in trespass gave to the plaintiff an appearance of title, by stating his title specially, thus removing the cause from the jury to the court.
 Note: ☞ Color is express when it is averred in the pleading, and implied when it is implied in the pleading.
 Body color. See under Body.
 Color blindness, total or partial inability to distinguish or recognize colors. See Daltonism.
 Complementary color, one of two colors so related to each other that when blended together they produce white light; -- so called because each color makes up to the other what it lacks to make it white.  Artificial or pigment colors, when mixed, produce effects differing from those of the primary colors, in consequence of partial absorption.
 Of color (as persons, races, etc.), not of the white race; -- commonly meaning, esp. in the United States, of negro blood, pure or mixed.
 Primary colors, those developed from the solar beam by the prism, viz., red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet, which are reduced by some authors to three, -- red, green, and violet-blue.  These three are sometimes called fundamental colors.
 Subjective color or Accidental color, a false or spurious color seen in some instances, owing to the persistence of the luminous impression upon the retina, and a gradual change of its character, as where a wheel perfectly white, and with a circumference regularly subdivided, is made to revolve rapidly over a dark object, the teeth of the wheel appear to the eye of different shades of color varying with the rapidity of rotation. See Accidental colors, under Accidental.


 Fun·da·men·tal a.  Pertaining to the foundation or basis; serving for the foundation. Hence: Essential, as an element, principle, or law; important; original; elementary; as, a fundamental truth; a fundamental axiom.
    The fundamental reasons of this war.   --Shak.
    Some fundamental antithesis in nature.   --Whewell.
 Fundamental bass Mus., the root note of a chord; a bass formed of the roots or fundamental tones of the chords.
 Fundamental chord Mus., a chord, the lowest tone of which is its root.
 Fundamental colors, red, green, and violet-blue. See Primary colors, under Color.