Devout Clove Rose

From the Latin devotus, consecrated — used principally in religious contexts for the dignified deep colors of sacred art and ecclesiastical dress. As a color modifier, devout implies saturation combined with restraint: the deep blues of Marian mantles, the deep reds of cardinals' robes. Sits in the bold-and-formal corner alongside imperial.

Latin clāvus, nail-shaped-aromatic-bud. As a color modifier, clove implies a warm-pungent-and-Indonesian-Spice-Island quality, the visual register of Indonesian-Spice-Island-and-Zanzibar-clove hand-warm-pungent-and-Indonesian-Spice-Island Indonesian-Spice-Island-and-Zanzibar-clove-and-Banda-Islands clove-and-warm-pungent-and-Indonesian-Spice-Island surfaces under Indonesian-Spice-Island-and-Zanzibar-clove-and-Banda-Islands Banda-Islands-and-Zanzibar-and-Maluku Spice-Islands-light. Sits at the modifier-and-flavor end of the grid, parallel to nutmeg and anise in usage.

The Latin rosa, the Greek rhodon, the Persian gul — every European language has a different name for the same flower and the same color. Rose covers the spectrum from blush to fuchsia depending on the cultivar, but in pigment shorthand it means a cool, slightly bluish red — the inside of a damask petal, the dye that washes out of madder root.