gainsboro

English

Etymology

A color named "gainsboro" was added to the X11 color chart by Paul Raveling in 1989. Raveling explained that he introduced a number of "light and off-white colors, copied from several Sinclair Paints color samples", of which gainsboro appears to be one.

Noun

gainsboro (uncountable)

1. A neutral light grey colour.

   gainsboro:  

   • 2005 May 21, David Park, “Re: GridLines issue”, in comp.soft-sys.math.mathematica‎^[3] (Usenet):

     By using light gray or Gainsboro we are using Edward Tufte's principle of "minimum effective difference" to put in ancillary information.

   • 2017, Guoliang Wang et al., “AgNW/Chinese Xuan paper film heaters for electro-thermochromic paper display”, in Materials Research Express, volume 4, number 11:

     When the temperature reached to^[sic] about 40 °C, the color of characters began to change, and it changed completely from black to gainsboro when the temperature rose to about 50 °C. As the […] film cooled down to the room temperature, the color returned to black.

Adjective

gainsboro (not comparable)

1. Of a neutral light grey colour.

See also

• Appendix:Colors

Anagrams

• aborgoins, bigaroons, bioorgans