Highborn Taurus Ruby

Old English hēah-boren, high-born — past-participle of bear. As a color modifier, highborn implies a saturated-and-aristocratic-and-elite quality, the deep-rich color of pre-modern English high-born aristocratic-class livery-and-armorial bearings. Sits at the bold-and-aristocratic end of the grid, parallel to noble and aristocratic in usage.

Latin taurus, bull-of-the-zodiac. As a color modifier, taurus implies a bull-and-earth-sign-and-Venus-ruled-fixed-earth quality, the visual register of Mesopotamian-bull-and-Greek-Taurus hand-bull-and-earth-sign-and-Venus-ruled-fixed-earth Mesopotamian-bull-and-Greek-Taurus-and-Pleiades-cluster taurus-and-bull-and-earth-sign surfaces under Mesopotamian-bull-and-Greek-Taurus-and-Pleiades-cluster spring-and-April-and-May fixed-earth-sign-light. Sits at the modifier-and-zodiac end of the grid, parallel to aries and gemini 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.