Bold Satyr 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.

Greek σάτυρος, half-goat-and-Dionysian-companion. As a color modifier, satyr implies a half-goat-and-Dionysian-revel-and-pastoral quality, the visual register of Hellenic-Satyr-and-Dionysian-revel hand-half-goat-and-Dionysian-revel-and-pastoral Hellenic-Satyr-and-Dionysian-revel-and-Pan-pipes satyr-and-half-goat-and-Dionysian-revel surfaces under Hellenic-Satyr-and-Dionysian-revel-and-Pan-pipes Bacchic-procession-and-vine-leaf-crown Dionysian-revel-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to faun and nymph 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.