earth colourearth colorn.adj.

1658 W. Sanderson Graphice 82 Earth colours are best, as all Okers..Terre-vert.

1703 J. Elsum Art of Painting after Ital. Manner xxviii. 121 It [sc. Terravert] is the finest of Earth-colours.

1756 G. Smith tr. Laboratory (new ed.) II. xiv. 260 Whatever ornaments are painted on the front of a house, ought to be done with earth-colours, or in fresco, as..it will last longest.

1843 W. B. S. Taylor Man. Fresco & Encaustic Painting x. 185 In this valuable communication it will be seen that the earth colours stand best, whilst the blues..and the blacks..have faded.

1897 Jrnl. Anthropol. Inst. 26 159 The front is painted in a grotesque and effective manner, with red, white and yellow earth colours.

1913 N. Heaton Hurst's Man. Painters' Colours (ed. 5) v. 155 Iron oxide is also the colouring principle of the group of pigments known as ‘earth colours’.

1951 Oxf. Junior Encycl. VII. 325/1 Examples of such earth colours are yellow ochre, siennas (dark yellows), and umbers (browns).

2001 Galpin Soc. Jrnl. 54 433 Assuming the chocolate brown colour to be an earth colour (probably burnt umber) the border pattern would not be visible on the X-ray if it was orpiment.

1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory ii. xiv. 328/2 It is of the colour of a Sparrow, white on the Belly, and of an Earth colour on the back.

1717 Atlas Geographus V. 263/1 The Skin is cover'd with red and black Spots, the rest being of an Earth Colour.

1787 J. Prestwich Respublica 27 A death's head in front, of an earth colour.

1837 H. H. Spry Mod. India I. 274 After exposing it [sc. soil] for some time to a strong fire, the only perceptible change was the conversion of the materials from an earth colour into a florid red.

1896 Auk 13 318 To two others [sc. wooden eggs] I gave a coat of earth-color all over, above and below.

1910 G. K. Chesterton What's Wrong with World iv. viii. 272 The brown earth-color of the monk's coat was instinctively chosen to express labor and humility.

1960 J. Cope Tame Ox 98 She was black, or more nearly a dark, dull, earth colour, a Mosuto girl.

2003 W. P. Spence Building your Dream House i. 112 The redwood siding provides an earth color.

1775 S. J. Pratt Liberal Opinions I. 205 His head resembled a new ploughed field, only that the furrows were red instead of being earth-colour.

1859 Freemasons Mag. & Masonic Mirror 8 Oct. 263/2 Jupiter's image was earth colour,..ash green and fire colour.

1935 T. S. Eliot Murder in Cathedral i. 12 The labourer bends to his piece of earth, earth-colour, his own colour.

2005 N. Cortese et al. Modelling T-55 Main Battle Tank 63 I decided to try the ‘sponge effect’ using Citadel Black ink... Applied to the earth colour tracks, it gives a subtle, worn look.