Sanitary Saint Turquoise

Latin sānitās, health — adjectival suffix -ary. As a color modifier, sanitary implies a clear-and-clean-and-medical quality, the crisp color of Bauhaus-and-Modern clinical-and-hospital interior-architecture white-tile-and-stainless-steel surfaces. Sits at the crisp-and-clean end of the grid, parallel to hygienic and sterile in usage.

Latin sanctus, holy. As a color modifier, saint implies a hagiographic-and-relic quality, the visual register of Greek-Orthodox-and-Roman-Catholic-Saint hand-painted icon-and-relic-and-halo-and-iconostasis hagiographic surfaces under Greek-Orthodox-and-Roman-Catholic hand-painted icon-and-iconostasis hagiographic-tradition candlelight. Sits at the modifier-and-cultural end of the grid, parallel to monk and friar in usage.

The hydrated copper-aluminum phosphate mined in Persia and the American Southwest for thousands of years — the firuze of Iran, the chalchihuitl of Mesoamerica, the heart of Pueblo and Navajo silverwork. The color refers to a fine Sleeping Beauty turquoise from Arizona: a saturated, slightly green-shifted blue with the slight matrix of host-rock veining. Brighter than persian, lighter than cerulean.