Striking Cowl Malachite

The progressive participle of strike, to hit. Used as a color word since the seventeenth century for hues that command immediate attention. Striking red, striking blue: the implication is saturation combined with visual impact. Sits at the bright-bucket center alongside bold and punchy.

Latin cuculla, monk's-hood-or-hood-of-habit. As a color modifier, cowl implies a monk's-hood-and-deeply-folded-hood quality, the visual register of Benedictine-and-Cistercian-monk's-cowl hand-monk's-hood-and-deeply-folded-hood Benedictine-and-Cistercian-monk's-cowl-and-Cluny-Abbey cowl-and-monk's-hood surfaces under Benedictine-and-Cistercian-monk's-cowl-and-Cluny-Abbey Cluny-and-Cîteaux-Abbey monastic-cloister-light. Sits at the modifier-and-textile end of the grid, parallel to cloak and frock in usage.

A copper carbonate mineral — Cu₂CO₃(OH)₂ — that crystallizes as concentric green bands in oxidized copper deposits. Mined for ornamental stone since ancient Egypt, ground into pigment for medieval European painting, polished into the malachite columns of the Russian Hermitage. The color refers to a polished cabochon: a saturated, slightly muted green with the high shine of stone and the visible banding of growth rings.