Solid Luna Crimson

Latin solidus, firm, dense — used as a color modifier since the seventeenth century for hues that read as continuous and unbroken: a solid blue is one with no variation across the surface. Implies high saturation combined with optical density. Sits in the bold-bucket alongside strong and robust, slightly more focused on uniformity.

Latin luna, moon. As a color modifier, luna implies a moonlit-and-silver-and-pale-night quality, the visual register of full-moon-and-Selene-Diana-Luna hand-moonlit-and-silver-and-pale-night full-moon-and-Selene-Diana-Luna-and-Mare-Tranquillitatis luna-and-moonlit-and-silver-and-pale-night surfaces under full-moon-and-Selene-Diana-Luna-and-Mare-Tranquillitatis night-meadow-and-tarn-and-monastic-cloister silver-night-light. Sits at the modifier-and-cosmic end of the grid, parallel to sol and terra 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.