Stately Pimento Crimson

An adjectival form of state, condition of dignity. Used as a color modifier since the seventeenth century for the deep saturated jewel tones of formal ceremony — the deep blue of a robes-of-state, the deep red of a state-banquet velvet. Sits in the bold-and-formal corner alongside imperial and royal, with slightly less institutional weight.

Spanish pimiento, sweet-red-Iberian-capsicum. As a color modifier, pimento implies a sweet-red-Iberian-capsicum-and-allspice-berry quality, the visual register of Spanish-and-Jamaican-pimento hand-sweet-red-Iberian-capsicum-and-allspice-berry Spanish-and-Jamaican-pimento-and-allspice-berry pimento-and-sweet-red-Iberian-capsicum surfaces under Spanish-and-Jamaican-pimento-and-allspice-berry Iberian-and-Jamaican-Blue-Mountain Iberian-and-Jamaican-spice-light. Sits at the modifier-and-flavor end of the grid, parallel to chili and pepper 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.