Pressed Tribe Teal

Latin pressāre, to press — past-participle of press. As a color modifier, pressed implies a clear-and-smoothed-and-flattened quality, the crisp color of Mid-Century-Modern freshly-pressed-shirt-and-trouser ironed-textile finish. Sits at the crisp-and-finished end of the grid, parallel to ironed and starched in usage.

Latin tribus, one-of-three-original-tribes. As a color modifier, tribe implies a kin-and-clan-and-extended-family quality, the visual register of pre-modern-tribal-and-kinship hand-built tent-and-totem-and-elder-council clan-and-kinship surfaces under pre-modern tribal-and-kinship hand-built encampment-and-elder-council firelight. Sits at the modifier-and-cultural end of the grid, parallel to clan and kin in usage.

Anas crecca, the small dabbling duck whose male in breeding plumage sports a chestnut head crossed by a glossy green-blue stripe. The color refers to that stripe — the iridescent panel just behind the eye: a saturated, slightly muted blue-green with the optical depth of structural color rather than pigment. Cooler than cypress, warmer than cerulean, with the ornithological specificity of a color named for one feather of one bird.