Stately Path Crimson

An adjectival form of state, condition of dignity. Used as a color modifier since the seventeenth century for the deep saturated jewel tones of formal ceremony — the deep blue of a robes-of-state, the deep red of a state-banquet velvet. Sits in the bold-and-formal corner alongside imperial and royal, with slightly less institutional weight.

Old English pæth, foot-trodden way. As a color modifier, path implies a foot-worn-pasture-track quality, the visual register of South-Downs-Way-and-Pennine-Way foot-trodden chalk-and-limestone-and-peat long-distance walking-track surfaces under hill-and-moorland English-walking-country light. Sits at the modifier-and-place end of the grid, parallel to lane and road in usage.

From the Old Spanish cremesin, itself from the Arabic qirmiz — the kermes scale insect, dried and ground into a brilliant carmine dye prized in the medieval Mediterranean. For centuries the most expensive red on a draper's shelf, reserved for cardinals, kings, and the cloth that gave English the word crimson. Cooler than scarlet, deeper than rose; the color of pomegranate seeds and a serious occasion.