colored

Etymology

adj

1. (American spelling) Having a color.
   Wash colored items separately from whites and darks to prevent the colors from bleeding.
2. Having a particular color or kind of color.
   The room was red, with a dark-colored rug.
3. Having prominent colors; colorful.
   The singer wore a colored shirt.
4. Biased; pervasively (but potentially subtly) influenced in a particular way.
   Mr. Brewer gave me his version of the history of the Conference of Studio Unions. It appeared to me then and appears to me now to have been a very colored view. 1948, 80th United States Congress, Jurisdictional Disputes in the Motion-Picture Industry, volume 3, Washington: Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 1966
   But by and large, a majority of Sanduskians never read any newspaper other than the local journal and I am convinced that they get a far more colored view of national news than they did when the city had competing dailies. 1949 January, Glenn D. Everett, “Putting the President On the Market Page”, in Nieman Reports, volume 3, number 1, Cambridge: Society of Nieman Fellows, →ISSN, page 26
   The organization's traditions and culture are inwardly focused. It is not conceivable that an alternative solution could exist. This results in a very colored view of the marketplace. 2001, Bernard H. Boar, The Art of Strategic Planning for Information Technology, 2nd edition, New York: John Wiley & Sons, page 93
5. (US, now dated and usually offensive) Of skin color other than white; in particular, black.
   […] a beautiful silk standard donated to the Third Battalion by the colored ladies of the city of New York, was formally presented to the battalion. 1898, William H. Chenery, The Fourteenth Regiment Rhode Island Heavy Artillery (colored) in the War to Preserve the Union, 1861-1865, page 38
   He made a smart remark about colored people and I got mad. I got mad because I like colored people. In fact, a colored lady raised me. Some of my best friends are colored people. 1967, “Cowboys & Colored People”performed by Flip Wilson
   To find a job is like a haystack needle / Because where he lives they don't use colored people 1973, Stevie Wonder (lyrics and music), “Living for the City”, in Innervisions
6. (South Africa, sometimes capitalized) Belonging to a multiracial ethnic group or category, having ancestry from more than one of the racial groups of southern Africa (black, white, and Asian). (Under apartheid, used as a metadescription for mixed-race people and peoples such as the Cape Coloureds.)
   Most of the colored community speaks Afrikaans, whereas languages like Xhosa or Venda are typically spoken by blacks and English is spoken mostly by whites.
   By the end of the 19th century District Six had become a bustling and heavily populated working class neighborhood whose population was predominantly coloured, Cape Malay and African intermixed with Indian, Chinese, and European migrants. 2011, John Bradley, Liz Bradley, Jon Vidar, Victoria Fine, Cape Town: Winelands & the Garden Route, Modern Overland, page 72
   By 1929, many of the Coloured radicals who had been excluded from the ICU had found a temporary home in the Western Cape branch of the African National Congress (ANC). 2014, Shula Marks, Stanley Trapido, editors, The Politics of Race, Class and Nationalism in Twentieth Century South Africa, Routledge
7. (chiefly historical) Designated for use by colored people (in either the US or South African sense).
   a colored drinking fountain
   a colored hospital

noun

1. (American spelling, US, now dated and offensive) A colored (nonwhite) person.
   When a white fellow gets in the ring with an eight ball the eight ball's got no chance. You see, 'cause they call boxing the sweet science. And that's where your colored just runs into trouble. That's just that science part. Yeah, but Joe Louis is a big 'un. 2005, “Creed, OK”, in Carnivàle, episode 17
2. (South Africa) A colored person; a person descended from more than one of the racial groups of Southern Africa (black white, Asian, Austronesian).
3. (laundry) A colored article of clothing.

verb

1. (American spelling) simple past and past participle of color