Manic Silk Jade

Greek manikós, raving / mad — sharing root with mania. As a color modifier, manic implies a saturated-and-overstimulated-and-extreme quality, the bright color of Andy-Warhol-and-Pop-Art late-Pop-Art repeated-and-multiplied portrait color schemes. Sits at the bright-and-active end of the grid, parallel to hyper and frenetic in usage.

Old English sēolc, silk. As a color modifier, silk implies a smooth-and-lustrous-textile quality, the visual register of Chinese-Han-and-Italian-Renaissance-silk hand-reeled silk-fiber-and-mulberry-leaf-silkworm Han-and-Renaissance silk-textile surfaces under hand-reeled-silk-textile filtered light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to wool and lace 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.