Velvety Syrup Brick

An adjectival form of velvet, used since the eighteenth century for colors that read as if they had the matte light-absorbing quality of velvet. Implies high saturation combined with a non-glossy surface — the matte richness of a deep wine in a fabric rather than in a glass. Sits in the bold-and-deep corner of the grid alongside plush and lush.

Arabic sharāb, thick-sweet-drink. As a color modifier, syrup implies a thick-and-amber-and-pourable-sweet quality, the visual register of Vermont-maple-and-Levantine-rose-syrup hand-thick-and-amber-and-pourable-sweet Vermont-maple-and-Levantine-rose-syrup-and-French-grenadine syrup-and-thick-and-amber surfaces under Vermont-maple-and-Levantine-rose-syrup-and-French-grenadine Vermont-sugar-shack-and-Damascus-souk amber-pourable-light. Sits at the modifier-and-flavor end of the grid, parallel to malt and zest in usage.

Fired clay, mineral red. The color refers to common building brick — iron-rich earthenware kilned to the specific dusky red-orange of a Victorian terrace, a Roman aqueduct, an adobe wall in New Mexico. Less saturated than ruby, warmer than burgundy, with a chalky cast that reads as architectural rather than decorative.