Stately Clan 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.

Scottish-Gaelic clann, children / family. As a color modifier, clan implies a Highland-Scottish-kinship quality, the visual register of Scottish-Highland-Clan Highland-and-Lowland hand-woven tartan-and-kilt-and-broadsword clan-and-kinship surfaces under Highland-Scottish-clan tartan-and-kilt-and-pipe-band Highland-pasture light. Sits at the modifier-and-cultural end of the grid, parallel to tribe and kin 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.