Colorfastness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The property of a fabric or material to retain its original color without fading or bleeding due to exposure to cleaning, environmental conditions, or light
2. The capability of dyes or pigments within textiles to remain vibrant and unaffected by washing, sunlight, or other external factors
3. The quality of a textile or material in which its color remains stable and does not fade when washed or exposed to light or chemicals

Etymology: Colorfastness is a plain compound: the adjective "colorfast," meaning a dye or fabric that keeps its colour without fading or running, with the suffix "-ness" added to turn that quality into a noun. The adjective itself is built from "color" and "fast" in the older sense of firm or fixed, as in "fast" meaning fixed in place, so the whole term describes a material whose colour is, in effect, fastened down. The suffix does the grammatical work here. The "-ness" ending comes from Old English "-nes," a noun-forming ending that turns an adjective into the name of the state or quality it describes, and it has been used this way in English for more than a thousand years. Attaching it to "colorfast" gives a noun for the abstract property, the measurable resistance of a dye or pigment to fading, washing or light.

Synonyms: fastness, stability

Antonyms: fading