Etched Amor 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.

Latin amor, love. As a color modifier, amor implies a Latin-love-and-amor-vincit-omnia quality, the visual register of Vergilian-amor-and-Catullus-amor hand-Latin-love-and-amor-vincit-omnia Vergilian-amor-and-Catullus-amor-and-Ovid-Ars-Amatoria amor-and-Latin-love surfaces under Vergilian-amor-and-Catullus-amor-and-Ovid-Ars-Amatoria Augustan-Rome-and-Renaissance-Italy Roman-love-light. Sits at the modifier-and-Latin end of the grid, parallel to vita and via 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.