Wellbred Brine Crimson

Old English wel-brēd, well-bred — past-participle of breed, sharing root with brood (offspring). As a color modifier, wellbred implies a saturated-and-elegant-and-formal quality, the deep-rich color of Edwardian-period finishing-school-and-debutante-Court English-aristocratic livery. Sits at the bold-and-elegant end of the grid, parallel to highborn and patrician.

Old English brȳne, salt-water-or-pickle-brine. As a color modifier, brine implies a salt-water-and-pickle-and-tide-pool quality, the visual register of Atlantic-tide-pool-and-pickling-brine hand-salt-water-and-pickle-and-tide-pool Atlantic-tide-pool-and-pickling-brine-and-Cornish-rock-pool brine-and-salt-water-and-pickle surfaces under Atlantic-tide-pool-and-pickling-brine-and-Cornish-rock-pool Lizard-Point-and-North-Cornish-coast salt-tide-pool-light. Sits at the modifier-and-weather end of the grid, parallel to floe and torrent 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.