Alight Bark Jade

Old English ā-lihtan, to set alight — past-participle of alight. As a color modifier, alight implies a saturated-and-currently-illuminated quality, the bright color of Christmas-tree and Diwali-lamp festival-decoration illuminated-and-twinkling emission. Sits at the bright-and-warm end of the grid, parallel to aflame and aglow in usage.

Old Norse bǫrkr, bark. As a color modifier, bark implies a tree-bark-and-rough-and-cork quality, the visual register of birch-and-oak-and-cork-bark hand-stripped-and-cork-bark birch-and-oak-and-cork-tree-bark hand-stripped-tree-bark surfaces under birch-and-oak-and-cork-bark hand-stripped-bark forest light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to rough and cane 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.