Rainbow

Pronunciation

• GenAm IPA: /ˈɹeɪnboÊŠ/; enPR: rān'bō
• RP IPA: /ˈɹeɪnbəʊ/

Origin

From Middle English reinbowe, reinboȝe, from Old English reġnboga ("rainbow"), from Proto-Germanic *regnabugô ("rainbow"), equivalent to rain + bow("arch"). Cognate with West Frisian reinbôge ("rainbow"), Dutch regenboog ("rainbow"), German Regenbogen ("rainbow"), Danish regnbue ("rainbow"), Swedish regnbåge ("rainbow"), Icelandic regnbogi ("rainbow").

Full definition of rainbow

Noun

1. A multicoloured arch in the sky, produced by prismatic refraction of light within droplets of rain in the air.
2. Any prismatic refraction of light showing a spectrum of colours.
3. (often used with “of”) A wide assortment; a varied multitude.''a rainbow of possibilities
4. An illusion, mirage''Many electoral promises are rainbows, vanishing soon after poll day.
5. (baseball) A curveball, particularly a slow one
6. (poker slang) In Texas hold 'em or Omaha hold 'em, a flop that contains three different suits

Synonyms

• (prismatic reflection) spectrum

Derived terms

• lunar rainbow
• marine rainbow
• rainbow fish
• rainbow perch
• rainbow runner
• rainbow trout
• rainbow wrasse
• somewhere over the rainbow
• supernumerary rainbow

Related terms

• crossbow

Adjective

1. Multicoloured.
2. (attributive, chiefly US) Made up of several races or ethnicities, or (more broadly) of several cultural or ideological factions.
• 2006, Anthony Summers, Robbyn Swan, Sinatra: The Life, page 246:He went along with them because the Pack was a rainbow group — two Italian-Americans, a black man, a Jew (Bishop), and a sometime Englishman (Lawford) — and they were making a point.
• 2007, Melissa Haussman, Birgit Sauer, Gendering the state in the age of globalization, page 67:The 1999 June elections led to a surprise change in the governing coalition from the long-term ruling Christian Democrats to a rainbow group of Greens, Liberals, and Socialists.
• 2007, Hooson, in a Letter to the Western Mail, 19 June 2007, published in Crossing the Rubicon: coalition politics Welsh style by John Osmond, page 28:... it seemed to me to be naive indeed for the Liberal Democrats to believe that they could simply enter into a rainbow alliance against the Labour Government.
• 2008, Bidyut Chakrabarty, Indian politics and society since independence, page 76:Mayawati has succeeded in building a social coalition that inverts the pyramid of caste/class hierarchy by building a rainbow alliance of social groups, now dominated by that greatest underclass of all, namely Dalits.
3. (attributive) LGBT.
• 2005, Alan McKee, The public sphere: an introduction, page 167:Similarly, the question of who belongs in such a rainbow alliance isn't set. It can include gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender individuals. It can include people who are 'questioning' which culture they belong to ...
4. (poker, chiefly of a flop) Composed entirely of different suits.

Usage notes

In the United States, 'rainbow' groups/families/alliances/coalitions were originally those made up of several races or ethnicities. The term is now used more broadly, to refer (in the 2007 quotation, for example) to an alliance of several political parties.

Verb

1. (transitive) To pattern with many colours, like a rainbow.