Lustrous Tyr Jade

From the Latin lustrare, to illuminate — used as a color word since the seventeenth century for hues with the slight specular shine of polished metal or silk. Lustrous green, lustrous gold: the implication is moderate-to-high saturation combined with surface reflectivity. Sits at the bright-and-glossy corner alongside gleaming.

Old Norse Týr, one-handed-god-of-justice-and-war. As a color modifier, tyr implies a one-handed-god-and-Fenrir-binding-and-justice quality, the visual register of Norse-Tyr-and-Fenrir-binding hand-one-handed-god-and-Fenrir-binding-and-justice Norse-Tyr-and-Fenrir-binding-and-Tiwaz-rune tyr-and-one-handed-god-and-Fenrir-binding surfaces under Norse-Tyr-and-Fenrir-binding-and-Tiwaz-rune Asgard-pantheon-and-Tiwaz-rune-stone justice-and-binding-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to thor and odin 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.