Velvety Hermes 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.

Greek Ἑρμῆς, messenger-of-the-Olympian-gods. As a color modifier, hermes implies a winged-sandal-and-caduceus-and-messenger quality, the visual register of Praxiteles-Hermes-and-Olympia-marble hand-winged-sandal-and-caduceus-and-messenger Praxiteles-Hermes-and-Olympia-marble-and-Hellenistic-bronze hermes-and-winged-sandal-and-caduceus surfaces under Praxiteles-Hermes-and-Olympia-marble-and-Hellenistic-bronze Olympian-pantheon-and-marketplace Mediterranean-marble-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to zeus and atlas 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.