Surveyed Cycle Teal

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.

Greek kýklos, circle / cycle. As a color modifier, cycle implies a repeating-and-circular-time quality, the visual register of seasonal-and-lunar-and-astronomical repeating-and-cyclic period-marker celestial-and-natural cycle-and-rhythm surfaces under repeating cyclic-and-seasonal light. Sits at the modifier-and-time end of the grid, parallel to phase and year 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.