Forthright Hollow Brick

Old English forð-riht, straight ahead, direct. Used as a color modifier in Anglo-Saxon-revival contexts for hues that read as honest and unguarded. Forthright red, forthright blue: the saturation is full, the hue is presented without ornamentation or qualification. Sits in the bold-bucket center alongside frank and direct.

Old English holh, hollow-place. As a color modifier, hollow implies a scooped-and-empty-and-resonant quality, the visual register of bell-and-gourd-and-tree-hollow hand-scooped-and-empty-and-resonant bell-and-gourd-and-tree-hollow hollowed-and-scooped-and-empty-and-resonant surfaces under bell-and-gourd-and-tree-hollow campanile-and-harvest-and-old-oak resonant-and-empty-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to void and blank in usage.

Fired clay, mineral red. The color refers to common building brick — iron-rich earthenware kilned to the specific dusky red-orange of a Victorian terrace, a Roman aqueduct, an adobe wall in New Mexico. Less saturated than ruby, warmer than burgundy, with a chalky cast that reads as architectural rather than decorative.