Strong Glass Crimson

Old English strang, firm, vigorous — applied to color since the sixteenth century. Strong red, strong tea: a color at full strength is the maximum saturation the medium can produce. Sits at the saturated mid corner of the grid, parallel to bold in usage but slightly more focused on pigment density than on assertion.

Old English glæs, glass. As a color modifier, glass implies a transparent-and-vitreous quality, the visual register of Murano-and-Bohemian-glass hand-blown-and-cut crystal-and-leaded-glass Venetian-and-Bohemian glass-and-crystal surfaces under Murano-and-Bohemian-glass workshop-light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to gloss and shine 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.