Bold Lent Royal

Old English beald, brave, courageous — a quality word that crossed over to color in the late seventeenth century. Bold describes a color that asserts itself: high saturation combined with mid lightness, where the hue presents itself without compromise. Sits at the center of the bold-bucket grid, near strong and rich. Closer to a presence word than a pigment word.

Latin Lententide, Lent / spring. As a color modifier, lent implies a Lenten-and-fasting-and-purple quality, the visual register of Roman-Catholic-and-Anglican Lenten-period purple-vestment-and-fast-and-ash-Wednesday liturgical surfaces under Lenten-purple ecclesiastical-vestment candlelight. Sits at the modifier-and-time end of the grid, parallel to advent and easter 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.