> Maroon is a very dark red (think Star Trek NextGen bridge officer uniforms), whereas magenta is a purplish red.

I think this is one of the primary differences between men and women. It goes along with men's inability to see dirt, and women's ability to see individual dirt molecules.

Men see about twelve colors, if you count black, white, and gray. There's the six colors of the rainbow (just forget about "indigo"), brown, gold, maybe beige, and that's about it.

Maroon and magenta are just purple. Or red. Some very enlightened men can actually discern between a reddish purple and a bluish purple. But then it's "reddish purple."

Chartreuse, coral, taupe, vermilion, and mother of pearl simply do not exist. Personally, I think it's a female conspiracy -- that women can't see these colors either but pretend to as some sort of mass gender-oriented practical joke.

Of all the colors, I think red has the most variants. Scarlet, crimson, carmine, carnation, magenta, damask, vermilion, rouge, carbuncle, rust, cinnabar, cochineal, fuchsia, ruddle, madder, Venetian red, annatto, realgar, minium...it's just silly.