Buzzing Inked Kelly

The progressive participle of buzz — borrowed metaphorically as a color word since the late twentieth century for hues that read as visually loud and slightly destabilizing. Buzzing yellow, buzzing magenta: the implication is saturation pushed past comfortable into the realm of optical agitation. Sits at the bright-bucket extreme alongside electric.

Old French enque, ink. As a color modifier, inked implies a hand-inked-line quality, the visual register of medieval-and-Renaissance-inked hand-inked-and-pen-and-ink quill-and-iron-gall-ink hand-inked-and-pen-line surfaces under medieval-and-Renaissance hand-inked-pen-and-quill scriptorium-light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to limned and carved in usage.

A bright yellow-green named for the Irish surname Kelly, common enough by the late nineteenth century to stand in for generic Irish in American slang. The color is the saturated, optically bright green of a Saint Patrick's Day parade: cleaner than shamrock, brighter than fern, with the pop-culture weight of a color used annually for green beer, green carnations, and the Chicago River.