Antiseptic Blithe Teal

Greek anti- (against) plus sēptikós (putrefying) — adjectival suffix -ic. As a color modifier, antiseptic implies a clear-and-disinfected-and-clinical quality, the crisp color of medical-laboratory and operating-theater hand-scrub-and-sanitizer surfaces. Sits at the crisp-and-clean end of the grid, parallel to sterile and sanitary in usage.

Old English blīthe, joyful-and-kind. As a color modifier, blithe implies a carefree-and-light-hearted-and-cheerful quality, the visual register of Shakespearean-pastoral-and-Forest-of-Arden-blithe hand-carefree-and-light-hearted-and-cheerful Shakespearean-pastoral-and-Forest-of-Arden-and-As-You-Like-It blithe-and-carefree-and-light-hearted-and-cheerful surfaces under Shakespearean-pastoral-and-Forest-of-Arden-and-As-You-Like-It English-greenwood-and-shepherd's-meadow Maytime-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to merry and jolly 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.