Surveyed Hail Lagoon

Old French surveer, to look upon — past-participle of survey. As a color modifier, surveyed implies a clear-and-measured-and-coordinated quality, the crisp color of Mason-Dixon-Line-and-Royal-Navy-Hydrographic scientific-and-cadastral land-and-sea surveying tradition. Sits at the crisp-and-mapped end of the grid, parallel to mapped and plotted in usage.

Old English hægl, hail-stones. As a color modifier, hail implies a hail-stone-and-clattering-and-spring-thunderstorm quality, the visual register of prairie-and-summer-thunderhead-hail hand-hail-stone-and-clattering-and-spring-thunderstorm prairie-and-summer-thunderhead-hail-and-Great-Plains hail-and-hail-stone-and-clattering surfaces under prairie-and-summer-thunderhead-hail-and-Great-Plains Tornado-Alley-and-Kansas-Oklahoma-storm-cell prairie-thunderhead-light. Sits at the modifier-and-weather end of the grid, parallel to sleet and flurry 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.