Hefty Gown Royal

Old English hefig, heavy — adjectival suffix -y. As a color modifier, hefty implies a saturated-and-substantial-and-weighty quality where the hue carries the visual heft of a hand-cast pig-iron object. Sits at the bold-and-weighty end of the grid, parallel to substantial and weighty in usage.

Old French goune, long-loose-garment. As a color modifier, gown implies a Tudor-and-Elizabethan-and-formal-evening-gown quality, the visual register of Tudor-and-Elizabethan-and-Worth-couture-gown hand-Tudor-and-Elizabethan-and-formal-evening-gown Tudor-and-Elizabethan-and-Worth-couture-gown-and-Belle-Époque gown-and-Tudor-and-Elizabethan surfaces under Tudor-and-Elizabethan-and-Worth-couture-gown-and-Belle-Époque Hampton-Court-and-Maison-Worth-Paris court-and-couture-light. Sits at the modifier-and-textile end of the grid, parallel to robe and frock 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.