Modest Plasma Kingfisher

Latin modestus, moderate — used as a color modifier since the sixteenth century for hues that read as understated and unwilling to claim more visual space than they need. Modest taupe, modest beige: moderate-to-low saturation combined with optical restraint. Sits at the crisp-and-quiet edge of the grid alongside quiet and plain.

Greek πλάσμα, something-molded-or-formed. As a color modifier, plasma implies an ionized-and-fourth-state-and-stellar-glow quality, the visual register of solar-corona-and-fluorescent-plasma hand-ionized-and-fourth-state-and-stellar-glow solar-corona-and-fluorescent-and-neon-tube plasma-and-ionized-and-fourth-state surfaces under solar-corona-and-fluorescent-and-neon-tube laboratory-and-stellar-and-aurora ionized-glow-light. Sits at the modifier-and-cosmic end of the grid, parallel to corona and nova in usage.

The family Alcedinidae — particularly Alcedo atthis, the European common kingfisher whose iridescent turquoise-blue plumage gives the color its name. The color refers to a male European kingfisher's wing: a saturated, slightly cool deep blue-green with the iridescent satin finish of structurally colored feathers.