Noble Blink Ruby

Latin nōbilis, well-known / illustrious — sharing root with gnōscere (to know). As a color modifier, noble implies a saturated-and-dignified-and-aristocratic quality, the deep-rich color of pre-modern European noble-class hereditary-aristocratic livery-and-armorial bearings. Sits at the bold-and-aristocratic end of the grid, parallel to aristocratic and highborn in usage.

Middle Dutch blinken, to-shine-or-twinkle. As a color modifier, blink implies a quick-and-twinkling-and-on-off quality, the visual register of lighthouse-beam-and-firefly-blink hand-quick-and-twinkling-and-on-off lighthouse-beam-and-firefly-and-Morse-lamp blinked-and-quick-and-twinkling surfaces under lighthouse-beam-and-firefly-and-Morse-lamp coastal-headland-and-summer-meadow rotating-and-pulsed-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to wink and glint 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.