Earnest Satyr Hibiscus

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 σάτυρος, half-goat-and-Dionysian-companion. As a color modifier, satyr implies a half-goat-and-Dionysian-revel-and-pastoral quality, the visual register of Hellenic-Satyr-and-Dionysian-revel hand-half-goat-and-Dionysian-revel-and-pastoral Hellenic-Satyr-and-Dionysian-revel-and-Pan-pipes satyr-and-half-goat-and-Dionysian-revel surfaces under Hellenic-Satyr-and-Dionysian-revel-and-Pan-pipes Bacchic-procession-and-vine-leaf-crown Dionysian-revel-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to faun and nymph in usage.

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis — the showy mallow of Pacific gardens, the Hawaiian state flower, the source of the deep red sorrel tea sold across West Africa as bissap. The color refers to a fully open hibiscus petal at midday: a hot, slightly magenta red with the velvet texture of a single-day bloom. By evening the same flower has wilted; by morning it's gone.