My favorite color name of all

Yesterday I forgot to mention my very favorite color name, “Caput Mortuum” or “Caput Mortuum Violet.” Winning the title of most interesting color name in my book, Caput Mortuum literally means “Dead Head” or “Worthless Remains.” It is also known as “Cardinal Purple.” According to Wikipedia it has also been known as “Mummy Brown,” from a practice in the 16th and 17th centuries of making the pigment from ground up mummies. They stopped the practice in the 19th C. when artists found out what it was made of . ;-)

Name and history alone make it interesting, but I really like the color too. I consider it a rather dull Red-Violet and use it in several of my watercolor palettes.