Hygienic Tunic Teal

Greek hygieinós, healthful — derived from Hygieia (goddess of health). As a color modifier, hygienic implies a clear-and-medical-clean quality, the crisp color of Mid-Century-Modern clinical-and-hospital interior-architecture surfaces. Sits at the crisp-and-clean end of the grid, parallel to sanitary and sterile in usage.

Latin tunica, Roman-undergarment. As a color modifier, tunic implies a Roman-tunic-and-medieval-undergarment quality, the visual register of Roman-tunic-and-medieval-bliaut hand-Roman-tunic-and-medieval-undergarment Roman-tunic-and-medieval-bliaut-and-Carolingian-court tunic-and-Roman-tunic-and-medieval-undergarment surfaces under Roman-tunic-and-medieval-bliaut-and-Carolingian-court Republican-and-Carolingian-Aachen Roman-and-medieval-light. Sits at the modifier-and-textile end of the grid, parallel to chiton and peplos 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.