Forceful Flare Mulberry

Old French force, strength — adjectival suffix -ful. As a color modifier, forceful implies a saturated-and-vigorous quality where the hue exerts visual force on its substrate. Sits at the bold-and-saturated end of the grid, parallel to mighty and commanding in tone.

Origin obscure, attested c. 1540, to-burn-with-an-unsteady-flame. As a color modifier, flare implies a sudden-and-spreading-and-bright-burst quality, the visual register of signal-flare-and-solar-flare hand-sudden-and-spreading-and-bright-burst signal-flare-and-solar-flare-and-magnesium-distress flared-and-sudden-and-spreading-and-bright surfaces under signal-flare-and-solar-flare-and-magnesium-distress shipboard-and-rescue-and-corona high-intensity-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to blaze and flash in usage.

The genus Morus — the white mulberry (M. alba) feeds silkworms; the black mulberry (M. nigra) bears the deep purple fruit that stains everything it touches. The color refers to a ripe black mulberry: a saturated, slightly red-shifted very deep purple with the slight juiciness of a compound fruit. Cooler than wine, warmer than indigo, with the agricultural weight of a tree that supported the entire Chinese silk industry for two thousand years.