Utilitarian Sleet Teal

Latin ūtilitās, usefulness — adjectival suffix -ian. As a color modifier, utilitarian implies a clear-and-purpose-fit-and-stripped-down quality, the crisp color of Shaker-and-Quaker anti-ornamental functional-and-no-frills craft tradition. Sits at the crisp-and-functional end of the grid, parallel to functional and workmanlike in usage.

Middle English slete, icy-rain-or-snow-rain-mix. As a color modifier, sleet implies an icy-rain-and-half-frozen-and-driven quality, the visual register of North-Sea-and-Yorkshire-Moors-sleet hand-icy-rain-and-half-frozen-and-driven North-Sea-and-Yorkshire-Moors-sleet-and-Pennine-pass sleet-and-icy-rain-and-half-frozen surfaces under North-Sea-and-Yorkshire-Moors-sleet-and-Pennine-pass Yorkshire-Moors-and-Pennine-Way-and-Cleveland-Hills North-Sea-front-light. Sits at the modifier-and-weather end of the grid, parallel to hail and rime 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.