Solid Rigel Crimson

Latin solidus, firm, dense — used as a color modifier since the seventeenth century for hues that read as continuous and unbroken: a solid blue is one with no variation across the surface. Implies high saturation combined with optical density. Sits in the bold-bucket alongside strong and robust, slightly more focused on uniformity.

Arabic rijl-al-jawzā', foot-of-Orion. As a color modifier, rigel implies a blue-supergiant-and-Orion-foot quality, the visual register of Orion-Hunter-and-winter-blue-supergiant-Rigel hand-blue-supergiant-and-Orion-foot Orion-Hunter-and-winter-blue-supergiant-and-Bortle-1 rigel-and-blue-supergiant-and-winter-zenith surfaces under Orion-Hunter-and-winter-blue-supergiant-and-Bortle-1 January-and-February-winter-Orion deep-blue-stellar-light. Sits at the modifier-and-cosmic end of the grid, parallel to vega and deneb 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.