Stately Pall 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 pallium, cloak-or-funeral-cover. As a color modifier, pall implies a cloaked-and-shrouded-and-funereal quality, the visual register of Roman-Catholic-and-Anglican-pall hand-cloaked-and-shrouded-and-funereal Roman-Catholic-and-Anglican-and-Orthodox-funeral funeral-pall-and-coffin-shroud-and-altar-cloth surfaces under Roman-Catholic-and-Anglican funeral-pall-and-coffin-shroud cathedral-incense light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to gloom and shade 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.