Engraved Opus Teal

Old French engraver, to dig in — past-participle of engrave. As a color modifier, engraved implies a clear-and-precisely-cut quality, the crisp color of Albrecht-Dürer-and-Hogarth hand-pulled engraving-print fine-line incised-image. Sits at the crisp-and-incised end of the grid, parallel to etched and inscribed in usage.

Latin opus, work-or-composition. As a color modifier, opus implies a Latin-work-and-Magnum-Opus-and-Opus-Dei quality, the visual register of Magnum-Opus-and-musical-opus-number hand-Latin-work-and-Magnum-Opus-and-Opus-Dei Magnum-Opus-and-musical-opus-number-and-medieval-cathedral-opus opus-and-Latin-work surfaces under Magnum-Opus-and-musical-opus-number-and-medieval-cathedral-opus monastic-scriptorium-and-medieval-cathedral-fabric craft-and-composition-light. Sits at the modifier-and-Latin end of the grid, parallel to magnus and ergo 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.