Lavish Pall Ruby

Old French lavasse, downpour — sharing root with laver (to wash). As a color modifier, lavish implies a saturated-and-extravagant quality where the hue spills over its visual boundaries with luxurious pigmentation. Sits at the bold-and-saturated end of the grid, parallel to opulent and sumptuous in usage.

Latin pallium, cloak-or-funeral-cover. As a color modifier, pall implies a cloaked-and-shrouded-and-funereal quality, the visual register of Roman-Catholic-and-Anglican-pall hand-cloaked-and-shrouded-and-funereal Roman-Catholic-and-Anglican-and-Orthodox-funeral funeral-pall-and-coffin-shroud-and-altar-cloth surfaces under Roman-Catholic-and-Anglican funeral-pall-and-coffin-shroud cathedral-incense light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to gloom and shade 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.