Lush Inlaid Crimson

Middle English lush, possibly from lascious, lascivious — a word that drifted from sensual ripeness toward visual abundance. Used as a color word since the eighteenth century for the saturated greens of well-watered foliage and the deep saturated jewel tones of velvet upholstery. Used across the deep and bold buckets where the hue is simultaneously dark and vivid.

Old French enlaissier, to-set-in. As a color modifier, inlaid implies a hand-set-and-decorative quality, the visual register of Florentine-and-Italian-Renaissance-pietra-dura hand-set-and-decorative inlaid-stone-and-wood-and-mother-of-pearl pietra-dura-and-marquetry surfaces under Florentine-and-Renaissance hand-inlaid pietra-dura-and-marquetry light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to carved and tooled 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.