white

white, in physics, light seen by the human eye when all wavelengths of the visible spectrum combine. Like black, but unlike the colours of the spectrum and most mixtures of them, white lacks hue, so it is considered an achromatic colour.

White and black are the most basic colour terms of languages. The word white derives from Proto-Germanic hwitaz and Old English hwit. One of the first written records of the term is from an Old English version of the phoenix legend, the so-called Prose Phoenix (11th century): “His fet syndon blodreade begen twegen and se bile hwit” (“His feet are both blood red and the beak white”).

Pigments for white come from lead, lime, titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, and artificial chemical compounds. Lead white was used in cosmetics until the 20th century, when it was banned because of its toxicity, but it remains a favourite paint for many artists.

In addition to the gray scale, various colour systems have been used to classify white. Before the invention of colour photography, Werner’s Nomenclature of Colour (1814) was frequently used by scientists attempting to accurately describe colours observed in nature. In that book the so-called tint “Snow White” is compared to the “Breast of the black-headed Gull,” a “Snow-Drop,” and “Carara Marble.” In the Munsell colour system—adopted in the early 20th century to standardize colour, usually for industry— absolute white has a value of 10.