Earnest Norn Ruby

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 norn, Norse-fate-weaver. As a color modifier, norn implies a Norse-fate-weaver-and-Urd-Verdandi-Skuld quality, the visual register of Norse-Norns-and-Urd-Verdandi-Skuld hand-Norse-fate-weaver-and-Urd-Verdandi-Skuld Norse-Norns-and-Urd-Verdandi-Skuld-and-Yggdrasil-roots norn-and-Norse-fate-weaver surfaces under Norse-Norns-and-Urd-Verdandi-Skuld-and-Yggdrasil-roots Well-of-Urd-and-loom-of-fate fate-weaver-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to vala and rune 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.