Buttressed Silk Violet

Old French bouterez, thrusting-mass — past-participle of buttress, derived from bouter (to thrust). As a color modifier, buttressed implies a saturated-and-architecturally-supported quality, the deep-rich color of Gothic-Cathedral flying-buttress-and-rib-vault stone-architecture. Sits at the bold-and-fortified end of the grid, parallel to fortified and reinforced.

Old English sēolc, silk. As a color modifier, silk implies a smooth-and-lustrous-textile quality, the visual register of Chinese-Han-and-Italian-Renaissance-silk hand-reeled silk-fiber-and-mulberry-leaf-silkworm Han-and-Renaissance silk-textile surfaces under hand-reeled-silk-textile filtered light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to wool and lace 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.