Etched Goth Teal

German ätzen, to etch — past-participle of etch. As a color modifier, etched implies a clear-and-precisely-incised quality, the crisp color of Rembrandt-and-Dürer hand-pulled etching-print fine-line incised-image. Sits at the crisp-and-incised end of the grid, parallel to engraved and inscribed in usage.

Greek Gothi, Goths. As a color modifier, goth implies a Germanic-tribal-migration quality, the visual register of Visigothic-and-Ostrogothic-Kingdoms late-Roman-period hand-built Germanic-Migration-period kingdom-and-fortification surfaces under Visigothic-Spain-and-Ostrogothic-Italy late-Roman Migration-Period sky. Sits at the modifier-and-cultural end of the grid, parallel to vandal and hun 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.