Confident Hera Crimson

A late-Latin participle, confidens, trusting — borrowed into English in the sixteenth century. As a color modifier, confident implies saturation combined with poise: a confident red doesn't try too hard, just sits at the level of its hue without overreaching. Sits in the bold-bucket center near bold and resolute.

Greek Ἥρα, queen-of-the-Olympian-gods. As a color modifier, hera implies a peacock-feather-and-queen-of-gods quality, the visual register of Olympian-Hera-and-Argos-temple hand-peacock-feather-and-queen-of-gods Olympian-Hera-and-Argos-temple-and-Heraion-of-Samos hera-and-peacock-feather-and-queen-of-gods surfaces under Olympian-Hera-and-Argos-temple-and-Heraion-of-Samos Polyclitus-and-Argive-and-Samian peacock-throne-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to zeus and diana 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.