Strong Procyon Royal

Old English strang, firm, vigorous — applied to color since the sixteenth century. Strong red, strong tea: a color at full strength is the maximum saturation the medium can produce. Sits at the saturated mid corner of the grid, parallel to bold in usage but slightly more focused on pigment density than on assertion.

Greek προκύων, before-the-dog. As a color modifier, procyon implies a Canis-Minor-and-bright-foretaste-of-Sirius quality, the visual register of Canis-Minor-Procyon-and-Winter-Triangle hand-Canis-Minor-and-bright-foretaste-of-Sirius Canis-Minor-Procyon-and-Winter-Triangle-and-Bortle-1-sky procyon-and-Canis-Minor-and-bright-foretaste surfaces under Canis-Minor-Procyon-and-Winter-Triangle-and-Bortle-1-sky January-and-February-winter-zenith winter-stellar-light. Sits at the modifier-and-cosmic end of the grid, parallel to rigel and altair 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.