Earnest Isis Rose

Old English eornost, seriousness, zeal. Used as a color modifier since the nineteenth century for hues that read as committed but unshowy — the working blues of denim, the deep greens of Quaker meetinghouses. Sits in the bold-and-quiet corner of the grid, slightly less luminous than resolute and slightly less institutional than imperial.

Egyptian Aset, throne-and-mother-goddess. As a color modifier, isis implies a winged-and-throne-and-mother-goddess quality, the visual register of Egyptian-Isis-and-Philae-temple hand-winged-and-throne-and-mother-goddess Egyptian-Isis-and-Philae-temple-and-Osirian-myth isis-and-winged-and-throne-and-mother-goddess surfaces under Egyptian-Isis-and-Philae-temple-and-Osirian-myth Nile-and-Philae-Aswan-temple winged-throne-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to horus and thoth in usage.

The Latin rosa, the Greek rhodon, the Persian gul — every European language has a different name for the same flower and the same color. Rose covers the spectrum from blush to fuchsia depending on the cultivar, but in pigment shorthand it means a cool, slightly bluish red — the inside of a damask petal, the dye that washes out of madder root.