Earnest Mossed Royal

Old English eornost, seriousness, zeal. Used as a color modifier since the nineteenth century for hues that read as committed but unshowy — the working blues of denim, the deep greens of Quaker meetinghouses. Sits in the bold-and-quiet corner of the grid, slightly less luminous than resolute and slightly less institutional than imperial.

Old English mos, moss. As a color modifier, mossed implies a moss-covered-and-aged quality, the visual register of English-and-Welsh-mossed-and-lichen-covered moss-and-lichen-covered stone-and-tree-and-cobble mossed-and-lichen-covered surfaces under English-and-Welsh moss-and-lichen-covered atmospheric light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to pitted and limed 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.