Buttressed Flock Ruby

Old French bouterez, thrusting-mass — past-participle of buttress, derived from bouter (to thrust). As a color modifier, buttressed implies a saturated-and-architecturally-supported quality, the deep-rich color of Gothic-Cathedral flying-buttress-and-rib-vault stone-architecture. Sits at the bold-and-fortified end of the grid, parallel to fortified and reinforced.

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.