Spick Haori Teal

Old Norse spik-spakr, spike-new — sharing root with spic-and-span. As a color modifier, spick implies a clear-and-newly-cleaned quality where the hue carries the just-polished visual register of fresh-painted-and-fresh-cleaned surfaces. Sits at the crisp-and-clean end of the grid, parallel to spotless and pristine in usage.

Japanese haori, short-jacket-over-kimono. As a color modifier, haori implies a Japanese-haori-and-short-jacket-over-kimono quality, the visual register of Edo-and-Meiji-haori-jacket hand-Japanese-haori-and-short-jacket-over-kimono Edo-and-Meiji-haori-jacket-and-Kyoto-Nishijin-and-Tokyo-Asakusa haori-and-Japanese-haori-and-short-jacket surfaces under Edo-and-Meiji-haori-jacket-and-Kyoto-Nishijin-and-Tokyo-Asakusa Edo-Tokugawa-and-Meiji-Tokyo Japanese-jacket-light. Sits at the modifier-and-textile end of the grid, parallel to kimono and sari 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.