Solid Glare Violet

Latin solidus, firm, dense — used as a color modifier since the seventeenth century for hues that read as continuous and unbroken: a solid blue is one with no variation across the surface. Implies high saturation combined with optical density. Sits in the bold-bucket alongside strong and robust, slightly more focused on uniformity.

Middle English glaren, to-shine-brightly. As a color modifier, glare implies a harsh-and-bright-and-overwhelming quality, the visual register of desert-noon-and-snow-field-glare hand-harsh-and-bright-and-overwhelming desert-noon-and-snow-field-and-salt-flat glared-and-harsh-and-bright-and-overwhelming surfaces under desert-noon-and-snow-field-and-salt-flat overhead-sun-and-snow-blind-and-bleached harsh-noon-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to flash and blaze 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.