Tracer Gloom Jade

Old French tracier, to trace — sharing root with English trace and track. As a color modifier, tracer implies a saturated-and-streak-of-light quality, the bright color of military-tracer-round and long-exposure-photography light-trail visual streak. Sits at the bright-and-active end of the grid, parallel to flashing and streaking in usage.

Middle English gloumen, to-look-sullen. As a color modifier, gloom implies a sullen-and-darkened-and-overcast quality, the visual register of Northumbrian-moor-and-Scottish-glen-gloom hand-sullen-and-darkened-and-overcast Northumbrian-moor-and-Scottish-glen-and-Yorkshire-dale gloomed-and-darkened-and-overcast surfaces under Northumbrian-moor-and-Scottish-glen overcast-and-low-cloud heather-and-bracken-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to murk and drear in usage.

Two minerals share the name: nephrite (a calcium-magnesium silicate, dominant in Chinese jade) and jadeite (a sodium-aluminum silicate, dominant in Burmese imperial jade). Both have been carved in China since at least the Neolithic. The color refers to high-quality apple-green jadeite: a saturated, slightly muted yellow-green with the waxy translucency of polished stone. Cooler than apple, warmer than mint, with the millennial cultural weight of yu, the stone of heaven.