Earnest Glass violet

Old English eornost, seriousness, zeal. Used as a color modifier since the nineteenth century for hues that read as committed but unshowy — the working blues of denim, the deep greens of Quaker meetinghouses. Sits in the bold-and-quiet corner of the grid, slightly less luminous than resolute and slightly less institutional than imperial.

Old English glæs, glass. As a color modifier, glass implies a transparent-and-vitreous quality, the visual register of Murano-and-Bohemian-glass hand-blown-and-cut crystal-and-leaded-glass Venetian-and-Bohemian glass-and-crystal surfaces under Murano-and-Bohemian-glass workshop-light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to gloss and shine in usage.

Viola odorata, the European sweet violet — small, fragrant, and the original meaning of the color name in English (the Violet of the rainbow). The color refers to a fresh sweet violet blossom in late winter: a saturated, slightly red-shifted deep blue-purple with the matte finish of small five-petaled flower. Cooler than amethyst, warmer than indigo, with the perfumed weight of a flower used in Roman garlands and Victorian eau de toilette.