Smoldering Sour Violet

The progressive participle of smolder, to burn slowly without flame. Used as a color word since the late nineteenth century for the deep reds and oranges of barely-flame coal — the warm saturated darks where the heat is internal rather than emitted. Sits in the bold-and-warm corner, slightly less luminous than burning and slightly less calm than rich.

Old English sūr, acid-or-fermented. As a color modifier, sour implies a fermented-and-puckered-and-acid quality, the visual register of sourdough-and-Bavarian-sauerkraut-sour hand-fermented-and-puckered-and-acid sourdough-and-Bavarian-sauerkraut-sour-and-Belgian-Lambic sour-and-fermented-and-puckered surfaces under sourdough-and-Bavarian-sauerkraut-sour-and-Belgian-Lambic San-Francisco-sourdough-and-Brussels-Lambic fermented-puckered-light. Sits at the modifier-and-flavor end of the grid, parallel to tart and tang 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.