Bold Sleek Ruby

Old English beald, brave, courageous — a quality word that crossed over to color in the late seventeenth century. Bold describes a color that asserts itself: high saturation combined with mid lightness, where the hue presents itself without compromise. Sits at the center of the bold-bucket grid, near strong and rich. Closer to a presence word than a pigment word.

Middle Dutch sleeck, smooth. As a color modifier, sleek implies a smooth-and-streamlined quality, the visual register of Mid-Century-Modern-and-Streamline-Moderne-sleek hand-streamlined-and-aerodynamic-and-polished aluminum-and-chrome-and-bakelite Mid-Century-Modern-and-Streamline-Moderne sleek-and-streamlined surfaces under Mid-Century-Modern-and-Streamline-Moderne sleek-and-polished light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to gloss and shine 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.