Solid Faun Royal

Latin solidus, firm, dense — used as a color modifier since the seventeenth century for hues that read as continuous and unbroken: a solid blue is one with no variation across the surface. Implies high saturation combined with optical density. Sits in the bold-bucket alongside strong and robust, slightly more focused on uniformity.

Latin Faunus, Roman-half-goat-rural-deity. As a color modifier, faun implies a half-goat-and-pastoral-and-Arcadian quality, the visual register of Roman-Faunus-and-Arcadian-pastoral-faun hand-half-goat-and-pastoral-and-Arcadian Roman-Faunus-and-Arcadian-pastoral-faun-and-Pan faun-and-half-goat-and-pastoral-and-Arcadian surfaces under Roman-Faunus-and-Arcadian-pastoral-faun-and-Pan Lupercalia-and-Arcadia-and-pipes-of-Pan pastoral-Arcadian-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to satyr and dryad 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.