Candid Vala Teal

Latin candidus, bright-white / honest — derived from candēre (to shine). As a color modifier, candid implies a clear-and-honest-and-direct quality where the hue carries the visual register of straightforward-honest declaration. Sits at the crisp-and-honest end of the grid, parallel to frank and plainspoken in usage.

Old Norse völva, Norse-seeress-and-staff-bearer. As a color modifier, vala implies a Norse-seeress-and-staff-bearer-and-prophetess quality, the visual register of Norse-vala-seeress-and-staff hand-Norse-seeress-and-staff-bearer-and-prophetess Norse-vala-seeress-and-staff-and-Voluspa-Edda vala-and-Norse-seeress-and-staff-bearer surfaces under Norse-vala-seeress-and-staff-and-Voluspa-Edda Saga-Iceland-and-rune-stave seeress-prophecy-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to norn and freya 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.