Cleansed Muse Turquoise

Old English clǣnsian, to make clean — past-participle of cleanse. As a color modifier, cleansed implies a clear-and-purified quality where the hue has been stripped of any contaminating tint. Sits at the crisp-and-clear end of the grid, parallel to fresh and pristine in usage.

Latin Musa, goddess-of-inspiration. As a color modifier, muse implies a contemplative-and-inspired-and-poetic quality, the visual register of Helicon-spring-and-Parnassus-muse hand-contemplative-and-inspired-and-poetic Helicon-spring-and-Parnassus-and-Castalian-fount mused-and-contemplative-and-inspired-and-poetic surfaces under Helicon-spring-and-Parnassus-and-Castalian-fount laurel-and-lyre-and-tablet poet's-grove-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to mull and brood in usage.

The hydrated copper-aluminum phosphate mined in Persia and the American Southwest for thousands of years — the firuze of Iran, the chalchihuitl of Mesoamerica, the heart of Pueblo and Navajo silverwork. The color refers to a fine Sleeping Beauty turquoise from Arizona: a saturated, slightly green-shifted blue with the slight matrix of host-rock veining. Brighter than persian, lighter than cerulean.