Clean Stole Teal

Old English clǣne, pure, free of dirt — used as a color modifier since the medieval period for hues that read as crisp and uncontaminated by other pigments. Clean white, clean blue: moderate saturation combined with optical clarity. Sits at the crisp-bucket center alongside clear and true.

Latin stola, Roman-women's-and-priestly-robe. As a color modifier, stole implies a Roman-women's-and-priestly-robe quality, the visual register of Roman-stola-and-Catholic-priestly-stole hand-Roman-women's-and-priestly-robe Roman-stola-and-Catholic-priestly-stole-and-Anglican-tippet stole-and-Roman-women's-and-priestly-robe surfaces under Roman-stola-and-Catholic-priestly-stole-and-Anglican-tippet Republican-Rome-and-Catholic-Mass-and-Anglican-Vespers Roman-and-Mass-light. Sits at the modifier-and-textile end of the grid, parallel to cope and robe in usage.

Anas crecca, the small dabbling duck whose male in breeding plumage sports a chestnut head crossed by a glossy green-blue stripe. The color refers to that stripe — the iridescent panel just behind the eye: a saturated, slightly muted blue-green with the optical depth of structural color rather than pigment. Cooler than cypress, warmer than cerulean, with the ornithological specificity of a color named for one feather of one bird.