Solid Merry Ruby

Latin solidus, firm, dense — used as a color modifier since the seventeenth century for hues that read as continuous and unbroken: a solid blue is one with no variation across the surface. Implies high saturation combined with optical density. Sits in the bold-bucket alongside strong and robust, slightly more focused on uniformity.

Old English myrige, pleasant-and-glad. As a color modifier, merry implies a glad-and-bright-and-festive quality, the visual register of Robin-Hood-Merry-Men-and-Maytime-merry hand-glad-and-bright-and-festive Robin-Hood-Merry-Men-and-Maytime-and-village-fair merried-and-glad-and-bright-and-festive surfaces under Robin-Hood-Merry-Men-and-Maytime-and-village-fair Sherwood-Forest-and-Mayday-and-Whitsun greenwood-festival-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to jolly and blithe 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.