Spotted on Slashdot, but is came from here:
siren red
?
I believe the term you're looking for is "fire-engine red".
Yer basic red-fire-engine siren is not so much red, more chrome-plated, innit?*
And I find no evidence that classical sirens were in any way red, despite being experts in luring men to their doom, which is after all the subject at hand**.
(Yeah, in today's usage a rotating red or red/blue light is called a "siren" on account of sitting atop a classic police car. But, back in the day, those who drove such cars knew the difference between "lights" and "siren", didn't they?)
* I'd post a link to an image, but Google's image search has had a makeover and now puts things in categories, and I haven't yet figured out how to break out of the categories and just rummage.
** And now that I've chased this curious bit of language, I won't bother examining the substance of the assertion, except to note that my reactions seem to be rather different. Chronotypes may be involved.
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