Settled Salve Lagoon

The past participle of settle, to come to rest — used as a color modifier since the seventeenth century for hues that read as stabilized after a process. Settled green, settled brown: moderate saturation combined with optical permanence. Sits at the crisp-bucket alongside steady and composed.

Latin salve, hail-or-be-well. As a color modifier, salve implies a Latin-greeting-and-Salve-Regina-and-Roman-salute quality, the visual register of Salve-Regina-and-Pompeii-salve hand-Latin-greeting-and-Salve-Regina-and-Roman-salute Salve-Regina-and-Pompeii-salve-and-Roman-doormat-mosaic salve-and-Latin-greeting surfaces under Salve-Regina-and-Pompeii-salve-and-Roman-doormat-mosaic Pompeian-mosaic-and-Marian-antiphon Roman-greeting-light. Sits at the modifier-and-Latin end of the grid, parallel to ave and pax in usage.

A shallow body of saltwater partially or fully enclosed by a barrier — coral atoll lagoons in the Pacific, Venice's Laguna Veneta, the Florida Keys' backcountry. The color refers to the average reflectance of a calm tropical lagoon at midday: a saturated, slightly muted blue-green with the optical clarity of shallow water over white sand. Brighter than reef, cooler than aquamarine, with the postcard weight of a Pacific atoll seen from above.