Clean Glee Mint

Old English clǣne, pure, free of dirt — used as a color modifier since the medieval period for hues that read as crisp and uncontaminated by other pigments. Clean white, clean blue: moderate saturation combined with optical clarity. Sits at the crisp-bucket center alongside clear and true.

Old English glēo, music-or-merriment. As a color modifier, glee implies a singing-and-merry-and-bubbling quality, the visual register of Elizabethan-glee-club-and-madrigal-glee hand-singing-and-merry-and-bubbling Elizabethan-glee-club-and-madrigal-and-catch-singing gleeful-and-singing-and-merry-and-bubbling surfaces under Elizabethan-glee-club-and-madrigal-and-catch-singing parlor-and-tavern-and-court candlelit-music-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to mirth and merry in usage.

The genus Mentha — peppermint, spearmint, apple mint, water mint — the cooling herb whose menthol gives it that quality at the molecular level. The color refers to fresh peppermint leaves before drying: a clean, slightly cool green with the matte finish of trichome-rich leaf surface. Lighter than basil, cooler than parsley, with the mojito-and-Pimm's association of a herb tied to summer drinks across two continents.