Lit Freya Turquoise

The past participle of light — short and modern. Used as a color word since the late twentieth century for hues that read as if they were illuminated. Lit yellow, lit pink: the implication is luminance combined with the slight optical impression of an internal light source. Sits in the bright-bucket extreme alongside electric.

Old Norse Freyja, goddess-of-love-and-Vanir. As a color modifier, freya implies a Vanir-goddess-and-feathered-cloak-and-Brísingamen quality, the visual register of Norse-Freya-and-Vanir-goddess hand-Vanir-goddess-and-feathered-cloak-and-Brísingamen Norse-Freya-and-Vanir-goddess-and-Brísingamen-amber-necklace freya-and-Vanir-goddess-and-feathered-cloak surfaces under Norse-Freya-and-Vanir-goddess-and-Brísingamen-amber-necklace Folkvang-and-Sessrúmnir-and-cat-drawn-chariot amber-necklace-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to odin and vala 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.