Buttressed Slick Mulberry

Old French bouterez, thrusting-mass — past-participle of buttress, derived from bouter (to thrust). As a color modifier, buttressed implies a saturated-and-architecturally-supported quality, the deep-rich color of Gothic-Cathedral flying-buttress-and-rib-vault stone-architecture. Sits at the bold-and-fortified end of the grid, parallel to fortified and reinforced.

Old Norse slíkr, slick / smooth. As a color modifier, slick implies a wet-and-glossy quality, the visual register of oil-and-water-slick wet-and-glossy oil-and-water-slick reflective-surface slick-and-glossy-and-reflective surfaces under wet-oil-and-water-slick reflective-light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to sleek and gloss in usage.

The genus Morus — the white mulberry (M. alba) feeds silkworms; the black mulberry (M. nigra) bears the deep purple fruit that stains everything it touches. The color refers to a ripe black mulberry: a saturated, slightly red-shifted very deep purple with the slight juiciness of a compound fruit. Cooler than wine, warmer than indigo, with the agricultural weight of a tree that supported the entire Chinese silk industry for two thousand years.