Cavalier Hoar Ruby

Italian cavaliere, horseman / knight via Latin caballārius. As a color modifier, cavalier implies a saturated-and-chivalrous-and-aristocratic quality, the deep-rich color of English-Civil-War royalist Cavalier military-faction velvet-and-lace-and-feathered-hat livery. Sits at the bold-and-chivalrous end of the grid, parallel to gallant and knightly.

Old English hār, grey-with-age-or-hoar-frost. As a color modifier, hoar implies a grey-aged-and-hoar-frosted quality, the visual register of English-meadow-and-hedgerow-hoar hand-grey-aged-and-hoar-frosted English-meadow-and-hedgerow-hoar-and-frosted-pasture hoar-and-grey-aged-and-hoar-frosted surfaces under English-meadow-and-hedgerow-hoar-and-frosted-pasture Cotswold-and-Yorkshire-Dales-frost-pasture frosted-meadow-light. Sits at the modifier-and-weather end of the grid, parallel to rime and sleet 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.