Color Terms. 
15 
lustreless, appearing on a dull, sometimes velvety sur¬ 
face, while again it may be more or less glossy, even to 
the degree of appearing as if varnished. To deal with 
these variations, however, requires simply the use of 
suitable adjectives. For example: To indicate a color 
which has no lustre or brightness, the adjective matt 
(or mat) may be used, in preference to dull , which im¬ 
plies reduction in purity or chroma; other adjectives, 
appropriate in special cases, being velvety, glossy, bur¬ 
nished metallic, matt-metallic, etc. 
Color Terms. —No other person has presented so 
forcibly the urgent need for reform in popular nomen¬ 
clature nor stated so clearly and concisely its short¬ 
comings and the simple remedy, as Mr. Milton Bradle3', 
from one of whose educational pamphlets on the subject* 
the following is quoted : “The list of words now em¬ 
ployed to express qualities or degrees of color is very 
small, in fact a half dozen comprise the more common 
terms, and these are pressed into service on all occasions, 
and in such varied relations that they not only fail to 
express anything definite but constantly contradict 
themselves . . . Tint, Hue and Shade are employed 
so loosely by the public generally, even by those people 
who claim to use English correctly, that neither word 
has a very definite meaning, although each is capable of 
being as accurately used as any other word in our every 
day vocabulary” 
Certainly one would expect that men of learning, at 
least, would employ the broader color terms correctly; 
but some of the highest autorities on color-physics habit¬ 
ually use them interchangeably, as if they were quite 
synonymous; and even the dictionaries, with few ex¬ 
ceptions, give incorrect or “hazy” definitions of these 
*Some criticisms of Popular Color Definitions and Suggestions for a better 
Color Nomenclature. Milton Bradley Co., Springfield, Mass. (Small pamphlet of 
15 pages). 
