magenta

magenta

1. a deep purplish red that is the complementary colour of green and, with yellow and cyan, forms a set of primary colours

2. another name for fuchsin

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

magenta

[mə′jen·tə]

(organic chemistry)

fuchsin

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Magenta

 

a city in northern Italy, 20 km west of Milan.

On June 4, 1859, during the Austro-Italo-French War of 1859 (the War of Italian Liberation), an engagement was fought near Magenta between Franco-Piedmontese troops under the command of Napoleon III and Austrian troops under the command of Lieutenant Field Marshal F. Cyulai. Less than half of the forces of both sides participated in the battle (54,000 French soldiers out of 135,000 Franco-Piedmontese troops and 58,000 out of 113,000 Austrian troops). The French troops struck at the right flank of the Austrian Army and captured Magenta, which led to a disorderly retreat of the Austrians; the Austrians lost 10,000 men, and the French, 4,500. The following day Cyulai did not dare to continue the fight and began a retreat across the Mincio River. The Franco-Piedmontese troops captured Milan on June 8 and took all of Lombardy by June 20. The victory at Magenta caused an upsurge of the national liberation movement in Italy.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.