Spick Nun Peacock

Old Norse spik-spakr, spike-new — sharing root with spic-and-span. As a color modifier, spick implies a clear-and-newly-cleaned quality where the hue carries the just-polished visual register of fresh-painted-and-fresh-cleaned surfaces. Sits at the crisp-and-clean end of the grid, parallel to spotless and pristine in usage.

Latin nonna, mother / nun. As a color modifier, nun implies a Carmelite-and-Benedictine-religious-sister quality, the visual register of Carmelite-and-Benedictine-Nun hand-spun robe-and-veil-and-wimple Carmelite-and-Benedictine-religious-sister surfaces under Carmelite-and-Benedictine-Religious-Sister hand-spun-robe-and-wimple convent-cloister light. Sits at the modifier-and-cultural end of the grid, parallel to monk and friar in usage.

Pavo cristatus, the Indian peafowl whose male displays the most elaborate sexual ornament in birds — a fan of two-meter eyespotted tail feathers in iridescent blue-green. The color is structural, not pigmented: created by interference patterns in the feather barbules. Peacock blue refers to the dominant body color: a saturated, slightly muted teal-blue with the optical depth of structural color. Cooler than persian, warmer than sapphire.