scarlet [ME] Scarlet originally referred to an expensive type of cloth. Since good strong colours, particularly a fast bright red, were expensive they were only used on high-quality cloth and the word was associated with the colour rather than the cloth by the 14th century. It is a shortening of Old French escarlate, from medieval Latin scarlata: this came via Arabic and medieval Greek from late Latin sigillatus ‘decorated with small images’, from sigillum ‘small image’, which must originally have referred to embroidered or damasked cloth. The sense ‘red with shame or indignation’ dates from the mid 19th century. The phrase scarlet woman arose in the early 19th century, originally applied (as scarlet lady), with reference to Revelation 17, to the Roman Catholic Church, by those who perceived it as devoted to showy ritual.