Smoldering Scorpio Crimson

The progressive participle of smolder, to burn slowly without flame. Used as a color word since the late nineteenth century for the deep reds and oranges of barely-flame coal — the warm saturated darks where the heat is internal rather than emitted. Sits in the bold-and-warm corner, slightly less luminous than burning and slightly less calm than rich.

Latin scorpio, scorpion-of-the-zodiac. As a color modifier, scorpio implies a scorpion-and-water-sign-and-Mars-Pluto-ruled-fixed-water quality, the visual register of Hellenic-Scorpio-and-Orion-myth-scorpion hand-scorpion-and-water-sign-and-Mars-Pluto-ruled-fixed-water Hellenic-Scorpio-and-Orion-myth-scorpion-and-Antares scorpio-and-scorpion-and-water-sign surfaces under Hellenic-Scorpio-and-Orion-myth-scorpion-and-Antares mid-autumn-and-October-and-November fixed-water-sign-light. Sits at the modifier-and-zodiac end of the grid, parallel to libra and sagittarius 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.