Robust Muse Royal

From the Latin robustus, of oak — implying strength combined with substance. As a color modifier, robust describes saturation combined with body: a robust burgundy, a robust olive. Sits in the bold-and-warm corner alongside strong and solid, with the slightly textural implication of a color that has substance behind the pigment.

Latin Musa, goddess-of-inspiration. As a color modifier, muse implies a contemplative-and-inspired-and-poetic quality, the visual register of Helicon-spring-and-Parnassus-muse hand-contemplative-and-inspired-and-poetic Helicon-spring-and-Parnassus-and-Castalian-fount mused-and-contemplative-and-inspired-and-poetic surfaces under Helicon-spring-and-Parnassus-and-Castalian-fount laurel-and-lyre-and-tablet poet's-grove-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to mull and brood in usage.

The blue of European royal court dress and regalia from the late seventeenth century forward — the color of British peers' robes, French royal sashes, the lining of the crown-jewel cases. The color refers to a saturated, slightly violet-shifted blue with the matte finish of velvet or melton wool dyed to maximum intensity: deeper than cornflower, warmer than ultramarine, with the heraldic weight of a color reserved for monarchs and the official Crown.