Even Malt Teal

Old English efen, flat, equal — used as a color modifier since the medieval period for hues that read as uniformly distributed across a surface. Even gray, even tan: the implication is moderate saturation combined with optical uniformity. Sits at the crisp-bucket center alongside steady and balanced.

Old English mealt, germinated-grain. As a color modifier, malt implies a kilned-grain-and-amber-stout quality, the visual register of Burton-on-Trent-and-Bavarian-malt hand-kilned-grain-and-amber-stout Burton-on-Trent-and-Bavarian-malt-and-Munich-and-Pilsen malt-and-kilned-grain surfaces under Burton-on-Trent-and-Bavarian-malt-and-Munich-and-Pilsen Burton-and-Munich-and-Pilsen brewery-and-kiln-light. Sits at the modifier-and-flavor end of the grid, parallel to syrup and zest 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.