Velvety Rime Crimson

An adjectival form of velvet, used since the eighteenth century for colors that read as if they had the matte light-absorbing quality of velvet. Implies high saturation combined with a non-glossy surface — the matte richness of a deep wine in a fabric rather than in a glass. Sits in the bold-and-deep corner of the grid alongside plush and lush.

Old English hrīm, hoar-frost-on-twigs. As a color modifier, rime implies a feathered-frost-and-fog-deposited quality, the visual register of Scottish-Highland-and-Cairngorm-rime hand-feathered-frost-and-fog-deposited Scottish-Highland-and-Cairngorm-rime-and-Pennine-cap rime-and-feathered-frost-and-fog-deposited surfaces under Scottish-Highland-and-Cairngorm-rime-and-Pennine-cap Cairngorm-Highlands-and-Scottish-Munro-and-Pennine-cap freezing-fog-light. Sits at the modifier-and-weather end of the grid, parallel to hoar and sleet 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.