Buttressed Irish Crimson

Old French bouterez, thrusting-mass — past-participle of buttress, derived from bouter (to thrust). As a color modifier, buttressed implies a saturated-and-architecturally-supported quality, the deep-rich color of Gothic-Cathedral flying-buttress-and-rib-vault stone-architecture. Sits at the bold-and-fortified end of the grid, parallel to fortified and reinforced.

Old English Irisc, of-Ireland. As a color modifier, irish implies a Hibernian-and-peat quality, the visual register of Irish-Hibernian hand-built peat-and-stone-and-thatched cottage-and-pasture-and-bog surfaces under Hibernian-and-West-of-Ireland peat-bog-and-cottage atmospheric light. Sits at the modifier-and-cultural end of the grid, parallel to welsh and celtic 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.