pentacolored en · ADJ
Etymology
From penta- + colored.
Meanings
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(not-comparable) Having five colors.
There were two kinds of porcelain in the Sung Dynasty; celadon porcelain and a plain white one. If we compare those with the Tang Dynasty’s tricolored porcelain of the previous era, of the Ming Dynasty’s pentacolored one of a later era, Sung’s one gave us some impression of plainness and simplicity.
1983, Seiki Sha, New Perspective on the History of Science, New York, N.Y.: Carlton Press, Inc., →ISBN, page 69:Two wildlife sanctuaries extinguished another, longer held, appetite – to meet Australia’s fauna. At the better of the two, Oasis Gardens, gravel paths sneaking through three acres of lush greenery led to cages of pentacolored birds, kangaroos of all ages and sizes, and irritable emus (one of which startled me by butting my camera on an attempted close - up).
1973 April 5, Dick Glovsky, “Brisbane: Calm, Quiet And Cuddly Koalas”, in The Newton Graphic, page two, column 2:In the nine layers of heaven above we smelled the aroma of flowers, / And in pentacolored clouds responded to laughing sounds.
2017, Stephen H. West, “The Pains of Pleasure: The Lanterns of Kaifeng”, in Joseph S. C. Lam, Shuen-fu Lin, Christian de Pee, Martin Powers, editors, Senses of the City: Perceptions of Hangzhou and Southern Song China, 1127–1279, The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, →ISBN, page 135:There were pentacolored cushions woven out of dragon hair, rugs whose borders were silk brocaded, couches made out of long elephants’ tusks, and mattresses plainted with purplish silk matting.[…]The story is about a handsome and amorous fisherman who once failed to catch a fish for three days, but instead obtained a pentacolored tortoise.
1965, Two Chinese Sex Classics, pages 23 and 91:Cover illustration: Ddaaddee, Lucky Pentacolored Flag (adapted from a photograph taken by Hu Geshan).
2014, A Grammar of Prinmi: Based on the Central Dialect of Northwest Yunnan, China (Brill’s Tibetan Studies Library: Languages of the Greater Himalayan Region; volume 5/14), Brill, →ISBN, →ISSN, →LCCN:The extant Scripture of the Five Numinous Treasure Talismans (Lingbao wufu jing 靈寳五符經), a text assembled ca. 280 CE, features an exercise in which the cosmic “sprouts” of the pentacolored qi of the five directions are systematically ingested, leading to transcendence (HY 388, 3.12a–b).
2005, Robert F. Campany, “Eating Better than Gods and Ancestors”, in Roel Sterckx, editor, Of Tripod and Palate: Food, Politics, and Religion in Traditional China, Palgrave Macmillan, →DOI, →ISBN, page 112: