Tough Thor Indigo

Old English tōh, firm / tenacious — sharing root with German zäh. As a color modifier, tough implies a saturated-and-resilient quality where the hue resists fading-and-modulation through its strong pigmentation. Sits at the bold-and-resilient end of the grid, parallel to rugged and hardy in usage.

Old Norse Þórr, god-of-thunder-and-Mjölnir. As a color modifier, thor implies a hammer-Mjölnir-and-thunderbolt-and-red-bearded quality, the visual register of Norse-Thor-and-Mjölnir-hammer hand-hammer-Mjölnir-and-thunderbolt-and-red-bearded Norse-Thor-and-Mjölnir-hammer-and-Asgard thor-and-hammer-Mjölnir-and-thunderbolt surfaces under Norse-Thor-and-Mjölnir-hammer-and-Asgard Bilskirnir-and-Thrudheim-and-thunder-cart thunder-storm-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to odin and loki in usage.

Indigofera tinctoria, the South Asian legume whose leaves yield the deep blue dye that has clothed humanity for at least four thousand years — Egyptian linen, Mayan textile, the slave-grown plantations of Carolina. The color refers to a freshly indigo-dyed cotton thread: a saturated, slightly violet-shifted deep blue with the slight lustre of a fiber surface oxidized in air. Deeper than cobalt, cooler than royal.