Smoldering Hyssop Rose

The progressive participle of smolder, to burn slowly without flame. Used as a color word since the late nineteenth century for the deep reds and oranges of barely-flame coal — the warm saturated darks where the heat is internal rather than emitted. Sits in the bold-and-warm corner, slightly less luminous than burning and slightly less calm than rich.

Hebrew ēzōb, Biblical-purifying-herb. As a color modifier, hyssop implies a Biblical-purifying-herb-and-monastic-physic-garden quality, the visual register of monastic-physic-garden-and-Biblical-hyssop hand-Biblical-purifying-herb-and-monastic-physic-garden monastic-physic-garden-and-Biblical-hyssop-and-Cluniac-cloister hyssop-and-Biblical-purifying-herb surfaces under monastic-physic-garden-and-Biblical-hyssop-and-Cluniac-cloister Cluny-and-Saint-Gall-physic-garden monastic-physic-light. Sits at the modifier-and-flavor end of the grid, parallel to savory and balm 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.