Antiseptic Terra Teal

Greek anti- (against) plus sēptikós (putrefying) — adjectival suffix -ic. As a color modifier, antiseptic implies a clear-and-disinfected-and-clinical quality, the crisp color of medical-laboratory and operating-theater hand-scrub-and-sanitizer surfaces. Sits at the crisp-and-clean end of the grid, parallel to sterile and sanitary in usage.

Latin terra, earth-or-land. As a color modifier, terra implies a earth-globe-and-loamy-and-grounded quality, the visual register of Pale-Blue-Dot-and-Apollo-Terra hand-earth-globe-and-loamy-and-grounded Pale-Blue-Dot-and-Apollo-and-Earthrise terra-and-earth-globe-and-loamy-and-grounded surfaces under Pale-Blue-Dot-and-Apollo-and-Earthrise lunar-orbit-and-deep-space earth-globe-light. Sits at the modifier-and-cosmic end of the grid, parallel to luna and sol 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.