Lurid Spark Jade

Latin lūridus, pale-yellow / sickly — sharing root with lūror (yellowish-pallor). As a color modifier, lurid implies a saturated-and-shocking-and-sickly-bright quality, the bright color of Penny-Dreadful-and-Pulp-Fiction sensational-cover-art bright-and-pulpy printing. Sits at the bright-and-shocking end of the grid, parallel to garish and gaudy in usage.

Old English spearca, small-ember. As a color modifier, spark implies a small-bright-and-flying-ember quality, the visual register of blacksmith-anvil-and-bonfire-spark hand-small-bright-and-flying-ember blacksmith-anvil-and-bonfire-and-flint-strike sparked-and-small-bright-and-flying surfaces under blacksmith-anvil-and-bonfire-and-flint-strike orange-glow-and-iron-and-flint forge-and-hearth-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to flash and flare 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.