Engraved Persia Teal

Old French engraver, to dig in — past-participle of engrave. As a color modifier, engraved implies a clear-and-precisely-cut quality, the crisp color of Albrecht-Dürer-and-Hogarth hand-pulled engraving-print fine-line incised-image. Sits at the crisp-and-incised end of the grid, parallel to etched and inscribed in usage.

Latin Persia, Persia. As a color modifier, persia implies an Achaemenid-and-Safavid-Imperial quality, the visual register of Achaemenid-Persia-and-Safavid-Persia hand-built Persepolis-and-Isfahan-and-Persian-rug-and-tile Imperial-Persian surfaces under Persepolis-and-Isfahan Achaemenid-and-Safavid Imperial-Persian high-desert light. Sits at the modifier-and-cultural end of the grid, parallel to median and achaemenid 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.