Tracer Horus Jade

Old French tracier, to trace — sharing root with English trace and track. As a color modifier, tracer implies a saturated-and-streak-of-light quality, the bright color of military-tracer-round and long-exposure-photography light-trail visual streak. Sits at the bright-and-active end of the grid, parallel to flashing and streaking in usage.

Egyptian Heru, falcon-headed-sky-god. As a color modifier, horus implies a falcon-headed-and-Eye-of-Horus quality, the visual register of Egyptian-Horus-and-Edfu-temple hand-falcon-headed-and-Eye-of-Horus Egyptian-Horus-and-Edfu-temple-and-falcon-pharaoh horus-and-falcon-headed-and-Eye-of-Horus surfaces under Egyptian-Horus-and-Edfu-temple-and-falcon-pharaoh Edfu-Aswan-temple-and-falcon-throne falcon-eye-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to isis and thoth in usage.

Two minerals share the name: nephrite (a calcium-magnesium silicate, dominant in Chinese jade) and jadeite (a sodium-aluminum silicate, dominant in Burmese imperial jade). Both have been carved in China since at least the Neolithic. The color refers to high-quality apple-green jadeite: a saturated, slightly muted yellow-green with the waxy translucency of polished stone. Cooler than apple, warmer than mint, with the millennial cultural weight of yu, the stone of heaven.