Tenacious Wend Violet

Latin tenāx, holding-fast — adjectival suffix -ous. As a color modifier, tenacious implies a saturated-and-clinging quality where the hue grips its substrate with stubborn pigmentation. Sits at the bold-and-resilient end of the grid, parallel to unyielding and adamant in usage.

Old English wendan, to-turn-or-go. As a color modifier, wend implies a winding-and-turning-and-meandered quality, the visual register of pilgrim-path-and-river-wend hand-winding-and-turning-and-meandered pilgrim-path-and-river-and-Roman-road wended-and-winding-and-turning-and-meandered surfaces under pilgrim-path-and-river-and-Roman-road Camino-and-Pennine-Way-and-Kumano hilltop-pilgrim-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to drift and roam 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.