Inscribed Mossed Turquoise

Latin īnscrībere, to write upon — past-participle of inscribe. As a color modifier, inscribed implies a clear-and-text-or-pattern-cut quality, the crisp color of Roman-Imperial-period monumental-stone inscription-and-monumental-text incised-relief. Sits at the crisp-and-incised end of the grid, parallel to etched and engraved in usage.

Old English mos, moss. As a color modifier, mossed implies a moss-covered-and-aged quality, the visual register of English-and-Welsh-mossed-and-lichen-covered moss-and-lichen-covered stone-and-tree-and-cobble mossed-and-lichen-covered surfaces under English-and-Welsh moss-and-lichen-covered atmospheric light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to pitted and limed 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.