Antiseptic Toltec Teal

Greek anti- (against) plus sēptikós (putrefying) — adjectival suffix -ic. As a color modifier, antiseptic implies a clear-and-disinfected-and-clinical quality, the crisp color of medical-laboratory and operating-theater hand-scrub-and-sanitizer surfaces. Sits at the crisp-and-clean end of the grid, parallel to sterile and sanitary in usage.

Nahuatl Tolteca, Toltec. As a color modifier, toltec implies a Tula-and-Mesoamerican quality, the visual register of Toltec-civilization-of-Tula post-Classic Mesoamerican hand-carved Atlantean-warrior-and-feathered-serpent stone-monumental surfaces under Tula-Hidalgo-and-Chichen-Itza post-Classic Mesoamerican high-altitude light. Sits at the modifier-and-cultural end of the grid, parallel to aztec and olmec 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.