Practical Shore Teal

Greek praktikós, practical — adjectival suffix -al. As a color modifier, practical implies a clear-and-purpose-fit-and-everyday quality where the hue carries the visual register of Shaker-and-Quaker utilitarian-and-functional everyday-life craft. Sits at the crisp-and-functional end of the grid, parallel to functional and workmanlike in usage.

Old English score, coast. As a color modifier, shore implies a tidal-edge-and-shingle quality, the visual register of Brighton-and-Cromer English-pebble-coast tide-deposited shingle-and-sea-glass-and-driftwood hand-walked surfaces under overcast Channel-light. Sits at the modifier-and-place end of the grid, parallel to coast and strand 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.