Hygienic Ache 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.

Old English acan, to-hurt-or-throb. As a color modifier, ache implies a dull-and-lingering-and-throbbing quality, the visual register of Romantic-poet-and-pining-lover-ache hand-dull-and-lingering-and-throbbing Romantic-poet-and-pining-lover-and-bedside-vigil ached-and-dull-and-lingering-and-throbbing surfaces under Romantic-poet-and-pining-lover-and-bedside-vigil long-night-and-melancholy-and-pining candle-and-rain-window-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to pang and throb 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.