Bold Thor Ruby

Old English beald, brave, courageous — a quality word that crossed over to color in the late seventeenth century. Bold describes a color that asserts itself: high saturation combined with mid lightness, where the hue presents itself without compromise. Sits at the center of the bold-bucket grid, near strong and rich. Closer to a presence word than a pigment word.

Old Norse Þórr, god-of-thunder-and-Mjölnir. As a color modifier, thor implies a hammer-Mjölnir-and-thunderbolt-and-red-bearded quality, the visual register of Norse-Thor-and-Mjölnir-hammer hand-hammer-Mjölnir-and-thunderbolt-and-red-bearded Norse-Thor-and-Mjölnir-hammer-and-Asgard thor-and-hammer-Mjölnir-and-thunderbolt surfaces under Norse-Thor-and-Mjölnir-hammer-and-Asgard Bilskirnir-and-Thrudheim-and-thunder-cart thunder-storm-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to odin and loki in usage.

From the Latin ruber — simply, red. The gemstone is a chromium-tinged corundum, harder than anything in nature except diamond, and so saturated that a fine Burmese pigeon's blood ruby at auction outpaces a comparable diamond by weight. The color borrows the gem's confidence: a clear, glassy red without the brown of garnet or the blue of crimson.