Ironed Mope Teal

Old English īsern, iron — past-participle of iron. As a color modifier, ironed implies a clear-and-smoothed-and-pressed quality, the crisp color of Mid-Century-Modern freshly-ironed-shirt-and-trouser dress-attire textile finish. Sits at the crisp-and-finished end of the grid, parallel to pressed and starched in usage.

Origin obscure, attested c. 1568, to-be-listless-and-dejected. As a color modifier, mope implies a listless-and-dejected-and-slumped quality, the visual register of Victorian-melancholy-and-rainy-Sunday-mope hand-listless-and-dejected-and-slumped Victorian-melancholy-and-rainy-Sunday-and-bored-afternoon moped-and-listless-and-dejected-and-slumped surfaces under Victorian-melancholy-and-rainy-Sunday-and-bored-afternoon dripping-eaves-and-grey-window slumped-window-seat-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to brood and sigh 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.