Surveyed Quad Lagoon

Old French surveer, to look upon — past-participle of survey. As a color modifier, surveyed implies a clear-and-measured-and-coordinated quality, the crisp color of Mason-Dixon-Line-and-Royal-Navy-Hydrographic scientific-and-cadastral land-and-sea surveying tradition. Sits at the crisp-and-mapped end of the grid, parallel to mapped and plotted in usage.

Latin quadrum, square. As a color modifier, quad implies an Oxford-and-Cambridge-college-quadrangle quality, the visual register of Oxford-and-Cambridge-college-quad hand-built four-sided-college-courtyard quad-and-cloister-and-lawn architectural surfaces under Oxford-and-Cambridge college-quadrangle academic light. Sits at the modifier-and-architecture end of the grid, parallel to court and atrium in usage.

A shallow body of saltwater partially or fully enclosed by a barrier — coral atoll lagoons in the Pacific, Venice's Laguna Veneta, the Florida Keys' backcountry. The color refers to the average reflectance of a calm tropical lagoon at midday: a saturated, slightly muted blue-green with the optical clarity of shallow water over white sand. Brighter than reef, cooler than aquamarine, with the postcard weight of a Pacific atoll seen from above.