Regal Waft Rose

Latin rēgālis, kingly — derived from rēx (king). As a color modifier, regal implies a saturated-and-royal-formality quality, the deep-rich color of British-Coronation-period royal vestment-and-mantle and Imperial-State-Crown regalia. Sits at the bold-and-imperial end of the grid, parallel to sovereign and royal in usage.

Middle English waft, related to wafian, to-wave-in-air. As a color modifier, waft implies a gently-conveyed-and-air-borne-and-drifting quality, the visual register of incense-and-rose-petal-waft hand-gently-conveyed-and-air-borne-and-drifting incense-and-rose-petal-and-summer-curtain wafted-and-gently-conveyed-and-air-borne surfaces under incense-and-rose-petal-and-summer-curtain church-thurible-and-walled-rose-garden-and-open-window airborne-drift-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to drift and mist 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.