Etched Mesh Teal

German ätzen, to etch — past-participle of etch. As a color modifier, etched implies a clear-and-precisely-incised quality, the crisp color of Rembrandt-and-Dürer hand-pulled etching-print fine-line incised-image. Sits at the crisp-and-incised end of the grid, parallel to engraved and inscribed in usage.

Old English mæscre, netting. As a color modifier, mesh implies a netted-and-woven-network quality, the visual register of hand-knotted-and-woven-mesh hand-knotted-and-woven-net wire-and-fiber-and-cord-mesh hand-knotted-and-woven-mesh-and-net surfaces under hand-knotted-and-woven-mesh-and-net working light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to wire and web 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.