Earnest Flit Rose

Old English eornost, seriousness, zeal. Used as a color modifier since the nineteenth century for hues that read as committed but unshowy — the working blues of denim, the deep greens of Quaker meetinghouses. Sits in the bold-and-quiet corner of the grid, slightly less luminous than resolute and slightly less institutional than imperial.

Old Norse flytja, to-move-or-shift. As a color modifier, flit implies a quick-darting-and-light-winged quality, the visual register of swallow-and-warbler-flit hand-quick-darting-and-light-winged swallow-and-warbler-and-darting-finch flitted-and-quick-darting-and-light-winged surfaces under swallow-and-warbler-and-darting-finch summer-eaves-and-hedgerow-and-meadow-edge dappled-flight-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to hover and flutter in usage.

The Latin rosa, the Greek rhodon, the Persian gul — every European language has a different name for the same flower and the same color. Rose covers the spectrum from blush to fuchsia depending on the cultivar, but in pigment shorthand it means a cool, slightly bluish red — the inside of a damask petal, the dye that washes out of madder root.