Bold Scot Rose

Old English beald, brave, courageous — a quality word that crossed over to color in the late seventeenth century. Bold describes a color that asserts itself: high saturation combined with mid lightness, where the hue presents itself without compromise. Sits at the center of the bold-bucket grid, near strong and rich. Closer to a presence word than a pigment word.

Old English Scotti, of-Scotland. As a color modifier, scot implies a Highland-and-tartan quality, the visual register of Scottish-Highland-and-Lowland hand-woven tartan-and-wool-and-tweed peat-and-heather-and-stone surfaces under Scottish-Highland-and-Lowland tartan-and-tweed Highland-pasture light. Sits at the modifier-and-cultural end of the grid, parallel to welsh and irish 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.