Bold Vega Crimson

Old English beald, brave, courageous — a quality word that crossed over to color in the late seventeenth century. Bold describes a color that asserts itself: high saturation combined with mid lightness, where the hue presents itself without compromise. Sits at the center of the bold-bucket grid, near strong and rich. Closer to a presence word than a pigment word.

Arabic al-nasr-al-wāqi', the-falling-eagle. As a color modifier, vega implies a brilliant-blue-white-and-summer-zenith quality, the visual register of Lyra-constellation-and-northern-summer-Vega hand-brilliant-blue-white-and-summer-zenith Lyra-constellation-and-northern-summer-and-Bortle-1-sky vega-and-brilliant-blue-white-and-summer-zenith surfaces under Lyra-constellation-and-northern-summer-and-Bortle-1-sky July-and-August-northern-zenith deep-sky-light. Sits at the modifier-and-cosmic end of the grid, parallel to deneb and altair 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.