Heavy Cord Aubergine

Old English hefig, weighty — cognate with heave. Used as a color modifier since at least the seventeenth century to indicate weight in saturation as much as value: heavy with pigment, heavy-bodied. In the engine's adjective grid, heavy sits alongside deep and plush in the dark-and-saturated quadrant. Closer to a fabric description than a pure value word.

Old French corde, string / rope. As a color modifier, cord implies a twisted-string-and-rope quality, the visual register of hand-twisted-and-corded twine-and-rope-and-cord hand-twisted-and-laid-rope hand-tied-cord-and-rope surfaces under hand-twisted-and-corded rope-and-cord working light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to twine and knot in usage.

The French and British name for the eggplant — borrowed from the Catalan albergínia and ultimately from the Sanskrit vātiṅgaṇa. Aubergine as a color name carries with it the slightly more aristocratic register of the European-language version of the word. The color refers to the same fruit as eggplant but shifted slightly redder in popular usage: a saturated, slightly red-shifted very deep purple with the polished finish of waxy fruit. Cooler than wine, warmer than indigo.