Earnest Faun Crimson

Old English eornost, seriousness, zeal. Used as a color modifier since the nineteenth century for hues that read as committed but unshowy — the working blues of denim, the deep greens of Quaker meetinghouses. Sits in the bold-and-quiet corner of the grid, slightly less luminous than resolute and slightly less institutional than imperial.

Latin Faunus, Roman-half-goat-rural-deity. As a color modifier, faun implies a half-goat-and-pastoral-and-Arcadian quality, the visual register of Roman-Faunus-and-Arcadian-pastoral-faun hand-half-goat-and-pastoral-and-Arcadian Roman-Faunus-and-Arcadian-pastoral-faun-and-Pan faun-and-half-goat-and-pastoral-and-Arcadian surfaces under Roman-Faunus-and-Arcadian-pastoral-faun-and-Pan Lupercalia-and-Arcadia-and-pipes-of-Pan pastoral-Arcadian-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to satyr and dryad 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.