Crimson

Template:Short description Crimson is a rich, deep red color, inclining to purple.Template:Better source needed It originally meant the color of the kermes dye produced from a scale insect, Kermes vermilio, but the name is now sometimes also used as a generic term for slightly bluish-red colors that are between red and rose. It is the national color of Nepal.

History

Crimson (NR4) is produced using the dried bodies of a scale insect, Kermes, which were gathered commercially in Mediterranean countries, where they live on the kermes oak, and sold throughout Europe. Kermes dyes have been found in burial wrappings in Anglo-Scandinavian York. They fell out of use with the introduction of carmine, also made from scale insects, because although the dyes were comparable in quality and color intensity, ten to twelve times as much kermes is needed to produce the same effect as carmine.

Carmine is a slightly different shade of red, extracted from a different insect (female cochineal), although these denominations are sometimes confused or exchanged on purpose. Cochineal appears to have been brought to Europe by the Spaniard Hernán Cortés during the conquest of the Aztec Empire and the name 'carmine' is derived from the French carmin. It was first described by Pietro Andrea Mattioli in 1549. The pigment is also called cochineal after the insect from which it is made.

Alizarin crimson was invented in 1868. Alizarin (PR83) is a pigment that was first synthesized in 1868 by the German chemists Carl Gräbe and Carl Liebermann and replaced the natural pigment madder lake. Alizarin crimson is a dye bonded onto alum which is then used as a pigment and mixed with ochre, sienna and umber. It is not totally colorfast.

Several historical color models have described crimson as a basic color:

• Aristotle listed as one of the basic colors, which is customarily translated as crimson. He described it as having harmony with the color purple in his Sense and Sensibilia.
• The 1708 edition of Traité de la Peinture en Mignature listed crimson red as a secondary color made up of red and blue, which is used to create other colors. It is listed alongside fire red, which mixes red and yellow.
• Entomologist Ignaz Schiffermüller included crimson red in his 12-color color wheel in 1772. He placed it between red and violet red, with fire red included on the other side of red.
• Physicist Thomas Young listed crimson as one of seven basic colors in 1807, distinguishing it from red.
• Printing technologist Frederic Eugene Ives defined the color as the opposite of green in 1902, naming it "minus green".
• Art historian Arthur Upham Pope described alizarine crimson as well as rose madder as the ideal pigment for a basic red in 1929.

Etymology

Crimson is a type of red. English dictionaries define crimson as a deep red, a rich red, or a purplish red. The word crimson refers to the kermes insect used to create the kermes dye. It comes from the Arabic word for the kermes insect, which was adapted to Medieval Latin and then Middle English, where it referred to both the insect and the dye c. 1400.

Earlier forms include cremesin, crymysyn and cramoysin (cf. cramoisy, a crimson cloth). These were adapted via Old Spanish from the Medieval Latin (also or ), the dye produced from Kermes scale insects, and can be traced back to Arabic () ("red") (Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler), also borrowed in Turkic languages and many other languages, e.g. German , Italian , French , Portuguese , Dutch , etc. (via Latin). The ultimate source from Classical Persian کرمست (kirmist), from Middle Persian; see Proto-Indo-Iranian *kŕ̥miš. Cognate with Sanskrit कृमिज (kṛmija). Doublet of kermes; also see carmine.

A shortened form of also gave the Latin , from which comes carmine.

Other cognates include the Persian "red" derived from "kermest" the red worm, Old Church Slavonic (), archaic Russian (), Bulgarian (), and Serbo-Croatian "red". Cf. also vermilion.

Connotations

Crimson is sometimes used to describe the color of blood. Crimson sometimes described the color of blushing, though brighter reds such as scarlet may also be used in this context.

In descriptive writing, crimson is sometimes used to emphasize the color red in a more intense usage and invoke a stronger emotional connotation. The color can be used negatively to describe anger or malice. It may alternatively be associated with style or class, especially in the context of fashion or interior design.

Dyes

File:Carminic acid structure.png

Carminic acid

Carmine dyes, which give crimson and related red and purple colors, are based on an aluminium and calcium salt of carminic acid. Carmine lake is an aluminium or aluminium-tin lake of cochineal extract, and crimson lake is prepared by striking down an infusion of cochineal with a 5 percent solution of alum and cream of tartar. Purple lake is prepared like carmine lake with the addition of lime to produce the deep purple tone. Carmine dyes tend to fade quickly.

Carmine dyes were once widely prized in both the Americas and in Europe. They were used in paints by Michelangelo and for the crimson fabrics of the Hussars, the Turks, the British Redcoats, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Nowadays carmine dyes are used for coloring foodstuffs, medicines and cosmetics. As a food additive in the European Union, carmine dyes are designated E120, and are also called cochineal and Natural Red 4. Carmine dyes are also used in some oil paints and watercolors used by artists.

In nature

• The crimson tide which sometimes occurs on beaches is caused by a type of algae known as Karenia brevis.

Crimson rosella

Crimson rosella

• Crimson rosellas are a subspecies of parrot that are common in Australia.
• The crimson sunbird is the national bird of Singapore.
• The crimson-breasted gonolek is an African bushshrike with a bright crimson breast.
• Crimson clover (Trifolium incarnatum) is a clover species native to Europe
• Crimson glory vine (Vitis coignetiae) is a vine species native to Asia
• Hind's Crimson Star is an alternative name of the deep orange-red variable star R Leporis

In culture

Literature

• In George R.R. Martin's series A Song of Ice and Fire, crimson is the family color of House Lannister.
• There is a Space Marine chapter in Warhammer 40,000 called the "Crimson Fists", who also paint the left glove of every warrior a deep red.
• In The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower by Stephen King, the principal antagonist is the Crimson King.
• The Flash (Barry Allen), a DC Comics superhero, wears a red costume and runs at super-speed. He is sometimes called The Crimson Comet.
• The Crimson Dynamo is the code name of a line of armor-wearing Soviet agents in Marvel Comics who frequently clash with Iron Man.

Music

• "Crimson and Clover" (1968 song)
• King Crimson (band)
  • In the Court of the Crimson King (1969)
    • "The Court of the Crimson King"
• W.A.S.P. - The Crimson Idol (album)
• Crimson (band)
• Crimson, white and indigo is how Jerry Garcia describes the American flag in "Standing on the Moon".
• Sentenced - Crimson (album)
• "Crimson," 2022 song by Skott
• Mark Knopfler - Kill to Get Crimson (album)

Film

• In Guillermo del Toro's 2015 gothic romance film Crimson Peak, the Sharpes' dilapidated mansion Allerdale Hall, which is steadily sinking into the red clay, is referred to as "Crimson Peak" due to the warm red clay seeping through the snow.
• The 1952 film The Crimson Pirate starred Burt Lancaster and Nick Cravat. Set late in the 18th century, on the fictional Caribbean islands of San Pero and Cobra, where a rebellion on Cobra is underway by the mysterious "El Libre". Pirate Captain Vallo captures the King's ship carrying His Majesty's envoy.

Nobility

• In Polish, karmazyn (crimson) is a synonym for a magnate, i.e., a member of the rich, high nobility as only they may wear robing dyed from the scale insect.

Religion

• In scriptures of the Baháʼí Faith, crimson stands for tests and sacrifice, among other things

Food

• Rhubarb is sometimes poetically referred to as crimson stalks.

Military

• The Danish hussar regiment's ceremonial uniform for enlisted members has a crimson pelisse.
• A regiment of the British Army, The King's Royal Hussars still wears crimson trousers as successors to the 11th Hussars (the "Cherrypickers")
• In the United States Army, crimson is the color of the Ordnance Corps.

School colors

• Some Greek letter organizations use crimson as one of their official colors: Delta Sigma Theta (ΔΣΘ), Kappa Alpha Psi (ΚΑΨ), and Kappa Alpha Order (ΚΑ).
• Crimson is the school color of several universities, including Korea University, University of Belgrano and University of Talca
  • In the United States including, Harvard University, University of Kansas, Indiana University, New Mexico State University, Saint Joseph's University, Tuskegee University, University of Alabama, University of Denver, University of Oklahoma, University of Utah, Washington State University, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute
• The daily newspaper at Harvard is The Harvard Crimson.
• The daily newspaper at Alabama is called The Crimson White.
• Harvard's athletic teams are the Crimson, and those of the University of Alabama are the Crimson Tide.

Vexillology

• Crimson is the national color of Nepal and forms the background of the country's flag. It also appears on the flag of Poland.

See also

• Alizarin crimson (color)
• List of colors
  • Amaranth (color)
  • Carmine (color)
  • Ruby (color)
  • Scarlet
• Kermes (dye)
• National symbols of Nepal
• Red dye insects:
  • Armenian cochineal
  • Polish cochineal

References

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: 
• Etymology OnLine