Earnest Cycle 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.

Greek kýklos, circle / cycle. As a color modifier, cycle implies a repeating-and-circular-time quality, the visual register of seasonal-and-lunar-and-astronomical repeating-and-cyclic period-marker celestial-and-natural cycle-and-rhythm surfaces under repeating cyclic-and-seasonal light. Sits at the modifier-and-time end of the grid, parallel to phase and year 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.