Stately Anise 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.

Latin anīsum, sweet-licorice-seed. As a color modifier, anise implies a sweet-licorice-and-Mediterranean-aniseed quality, the visual register of Sicilian-and-Provençal-anise hand-sweet-licorice-and-Mediterranean-aniseed Sicilian-and-Provençal-anise-and-Pernod-Ricard anise-and-sweet-licorice surfaces under Sicilian-and-Provençal-anise-and-Pernod-Ricard Marseille-and-Sicily-and-Pastis Mediterranean-licorice-light. Sits at the modifier-and-flavor end of the grid, parallel to clove and caraway 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.