Surveyed Joy Turquoise

Old French surveer, to look upon — past-participle of survey. As a color modifier, surveyed implies a clear-and-measured-and-coordinated quality, the crisp color of Mason-Dixon-Line-and-Royal-Navy-Hydrographic scientific-and-cadastral land-and-sea surveying tradition. Sits at the crisp-and-mapped end of the grid, parallel to mapped and plotted in usage.

Latin gaudia, delights. As a color modifier, joy implies a bright-and-radiant-and-uplifted quality, the visual register of Provençal-troubadour-and-Florentine-Carnival-joy hand-bright-and-radiant-and-uplifted Provençal-troubadour-and-Florentine-Carnival-and-Renaissance-festa joyful-and-bright-and-radiant-and-uplifted surfaces under Provençal-troubadour-and-Florentine-Carnival-and-Renaissance-festa banner-and-procession-and-piazza festival-day-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to bliss and glee 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.