Devout Flock Ruby

From the Latin devotus, consecrated — used principally in religious contexts for the dignified deep colors of sacred art and ecclesiastical dress. As a color modifier, devout implies saturation combined with restraint: the deep blues of Marian mantles, the deep reds of cardinals' robes. Sits in the bold-and-formal corner alongside imperial.

Latin floccus, tuft-of-wool. As a color modifier, flock implies a tuft-of-wool-and-flocked-paper quality, the visual register of Victorian-flocked-wallpaper-and-Tudor-flocked-velvet hand-applied-and-tufted flocked-wallpaper-and-velvet flock-and-tuft surfaces under Victorian-flocked-wallpaper-and-Tudor-flocked-velvet interior-decoration light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to fluff and tufted 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.