Stately Bliss Violet

An adjectival form of state, condition of dignity. Used as a color modifier since the seventeenth century for the deep saturated jewel tones of formal ceremony — the deep blue of a robes-of-state, the deep red of a state-banquet velvet. Sits in the bold-and-formal corner alongside imperial and royal, with slightly less institutional weight.

Old English blīths, joy-or-delight. As a color modifier, bliss implies a deep-joy-and-rapture-and-contentment quality, the visual register of Beatific-Vision-and-Elysian-Field-bliss hand-deep-joy-and-rapture-and-contentment Beatific-Vision-and-Elysian-Field-and-paradise-meadow blissed-and-deep-joy-and-rapture surfaces under Beatific-Vision-and-Elysian-Field-and-paradise-meadow heavenly-and-rapturous-and-blessed paradise-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to joy and mirth 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.