Gallant Creep Indigo

Old French galant, brave / charming — present-participle of galer (to make merry). As a color modifier, gallant implies a saturated-and-chivalrous-and-confident quality, the deep-rich color of Three-Musketeers and Cyrano-de-Bergerac swashbuckling adventure tradition. Sits at the bold-and-chivalrous end of the grid, parallel to valiant and heroic.

Old English crēopan, to-move-slowly. As a color modifier, creep implies a slow-stealthy-and-spreading quality, the visual register of ivy-on-wall-and-mist-creep hand-slow-stealthy-and-spreading ivy-on-wall-and-mist-creep-and-spreading-shadow crept-and-slow-stealthy-and-spreading surfaces under ivy-on-wall-and-mist-creep-and-spreading-shadow ruined-cloister-and-river-valley-and-evening-meadow encroaching-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to lurk and prowl 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.