Solid Virtus 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.

Latin virtus, manliness-and-courage-and-virtue. As a color modifier, virtus implies a Roman-virtus-and-stoic-and-Cardinal-Virtues quality, the visual register of Roman-virtus-and-Stoic-Cardinal-Virtues hand-Roman-virtus-and-stoic-and-Cardinal-Virtues Roman-virtus-and-Stoic-Cardinal-Virtues-and-Marcus-Aurelius virtus-and-Roman-virtus surfaces under Roman-virtus-and-Stoic-Cardinal-Virtues-and-Marcus-Aurelius Republican-Rome-and-Marcus-Aurelius Stoic-virtue-light. Sits at the modifier-and-Latin end of the grid, parallel to senex and dux 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.