Composed Sigh Ruby

The past participle of compose, to arrange together — used as a color modifier for hues that read as deliberate and balanced. Composed black, composed gray: the saturation is moderate, the hue is calmly positioned without aggression. Sits at the bold-and-quiet edge of the grid near settled and resolute.

Middle English sighen, to-breathe-out-audibly. As a color modifier, sigh implies a breathed-out-and-released-and-wistful quality, the visual register of Romantic-poet-and-pining-lover-sigh hand-breathed-out-and-released-and-pining Romantic-poet-and-pining-lover-and-bedside-vigil sighed-and-released-and-breathed-out surfaces under Romantic-poet-and-pining-lover candle-lit-and-bedside-vigil window-and-balcony-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to yearn and brood 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.