Velvety Fluff Crimson

An adjectival form of velvet, used since the eighteenth century for colors that read as if they had the matte light-absorbing quality of velvet. Implies high saturation combined with a non-glossy surface — the matte richness of a deep wine in a fabric rather than in a glass. Sits in the bold-and-deep corner of the grid alongside plush and lush.

Imitative-onomatopoeic origin, attested c. 1790. As a color modifier, fluff implies a soft-puffed-and-airy quality, the visual register of cotton-and-down-and-wool-fluff hand-carded-and-puffed cotton-and-down-and-wool-fluff hand-carded-and-puffed-fluff surfaces under hand-carded-and-puffed cotton-and-down-and-wool-fluff working-light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to down and fuzz 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.