Stately Torrent Royal

An adjectival form of state, condition of dignity. Used as a color modifier since the seventeenth century for the deep saturated jewel tones of formal ceremony — the deep blue of a robes-of-state, the deep red of a state-banquet velvet. Sits in the bold-and-formal corner alongside imperial and royal, with slightly less institutional weight.

Latin torrens, rushing-or-burning-stream. As a color modifier, torrent implies a rushing-and-deluge-and-flash-flood quality, the visual register of Alpine-and-Pyrenean-torrent hand-rushing-and-deluge-and-flash-flood Alpine-and-Pyrenean-torrent-and-monsoon-deluge torrent-and-rushing-and-deluge surfaces under Alpine-and-Pyrenean-torrent-and-monsoon-deluge Alpine-Dolomites-and-Pyrenean-cirque deluge-rushing-water-light. Sits at the modifier-and-weather end of the grid, parallel to rain and thaw 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.