Earnest Haori Fuchsia

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.

Japanese haori, short-jacket-over-kimono. As a color modifier, haori implies a Japanese-haori-and-short-jacket-over-kimono quality, the visual register of Edo-and-Meiji-haori-jacket hand-Japanese-haori-and-short-jacket-over-kimono Edo-and-Meiji-haori-jacket-and-Kyoto-Nishijin-and-Tokyo-Asakusa haori-and-Japanese-haori-and-short-jacket surfaces under Edo-and-Meiji-haori-jacket-and-Kyoto-Nishijin-and-Tokyo-Asakusa Edo-Tokugawa-and-Meiji-Tokyo Japanese-jacket-light. Sits at the modifier-and-textile end of the grid, parallel to kimono and sari in usage.

The genus Fuchsia — South American shrubs named in 1703 for the German botanist Leonhart Fuchs. The color refers to the calyx and tube of a vibrant Fuchsia magellanica hybrid: a saturated, slightly cool deep pink-magenta with the satiny finish of a tubular hummingbird-pollinated flower. Brighter than rose, warmer than orchid, with the bedding-and-basket weight of a plant genus whose flowers gave English the most attention-demanding pink in the spectrum.