Stately Unda 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 unda, wave-or-water. As a color modifier, unda implies a Latin-wave-and-water-and-Roman-aqueduct quality, the visual register of Roman-aqueduct-and-Pontine-marsh-unda hand-Latin-wave-and-water-and-Roman-aqueduct Roman-aqueduct-and-Pontine-marsh-unda-and-Tiber-flow unda-and-Latin-wave-and-water surfaces under Roman-aqueduct-and-Pontine-marsh-unda-and-Tiber-flow Aqua-Claudia-and-Aqua-Marcia Roman-water-light. Sits at the modifier-and-Latin end of the grid, parallel to via and arbor 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.