Subjective ∨ Accidental color Meaning, Definition & Usage

Definitions
  1. a false or spurious color seen in some instances, owing to the persistence of the luminous impression upon the retina, and a gradual change of its character, as where a wheel perfectly white, and with a circumference regulary subdiveded, is made to revolve rapidly over a dark object, the teeth, of the wheel appear to the eye of different shades of color varying with the rapidity of rotation. See Accidental colors, under Accidental.

Webster 1913