Earnest Chervil 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.

Latin chaerephylla, delicate-French-fines-herbes. As a color modifier, chervil implies a delicate-French-fines-herbes-and-anise-leaf quality, the visual register of French-fines-herbes-and-Lyon-bistro-chervil hand-delicate-French-fines-herbes-and-anise-leaf French-fines-herbes-and-Lyon-bistro-chervil-and-spring-vinaigrette chervil-and-delicate-French-fines-herbes surfaces under French-fines-herbes-and-Lyon-bistro-chervil-and-spring-vinaigrette Lyon-bouchon-and-Loire-Valley-spring spring-bistro-light. Sits at the modifier-and-flavor end of the grid, parallel to chive and dill 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.