Tricolor
/ˈtraɪ.kə.lɚ/noun
Having or composed of three colors.
Did you know?The first element comes from Latin trēs, and the second from Latin color, a word tied to the same ancient root as English hue-words like discolor and color itself—not magic, but a clean linguistic spell of counting and chroma.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*treyes
“three”
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*kel-
“to cover, conceal; likely the deep source behind Latin color”
Latin
Latin
trēs
“three”
Latin
Latin
color
“color, hue, appearance”
Old French
OF
tricolore
“three-colored”
Modern English
English
tricolor
“having three colors”