Booming Scorpio Ruby

Imitative-onomatopoeic origin — present-participle of boom, sharing root with Dutch bommen. As a color modifier, booming implies a saturated-and-loud-and-confident quality where the hue announces itself with full visual amplitude. Sits at the bold-and-resonant end of the grid, parallel to resounding and thunderous.

Latin scorpio, scorpion-of-the-zodiac. As a color modifier, scorpio implies a scorpion-and-water-sign-and-Mars-Pluto-ruled-fixed-water quality, the visual register of Hellenic-Scorpio-and-Orion-myth-scorpion hand-scorpion-and-water-sign-and-Mars-Pluto-ruled-fixed-water Hellenic-Scorpio-and-Orion-myth-scorpion-and-Antares scorpio-and-scorpion-and-water-sign surfaces under Hellenic-Scorpio-and-Orion-myth-scorpion-and-Antares mid-autumn-and-October-and-November fixed-water-sign-light. Sits at the modifier-and-zodiac end of the grid, parallel to libra and sagittarius in usage.

From the Latin ruber — simply, red. The gemstone is a chromium-tinged corundum, harder than anything in nature except diamond, and so saturated that a fine Burmese pigeon's blood ruby at auction outpaces a comparable diamond by weight. The color borrows the gem's confidence: a clear, glassy red without the brown of garnet or the blue of crimson.