Spartan Slab Cerulean

Greek Spartiátēs, of Sparta — adjectival suffix referring to the Lacedaemonian warrior city. As a color modifier, spartan implies a saturated-and-disciplined-and-formal quality, the deep-rich color of Spartan-hoplite military-class crimson-and-bronze armor-and-cloak. Sits at the bold-and-formal end of the grid, parallel to austere and stern in tone.

Old French esclape, splinter / slab. As a color modifier, slab implies a flat-thick-stone-or-wood quality, the visual register of Cotswold-and-Yorkshire-flagstone-and-slab hand-quarried-and-flat-thick stone-and-timber-and-marble hand-quarried-flat-thick-slab surfaces under Cotswold-and-Yorkshire flagstone-and-slab quarry-light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to plate and tile in usage.

From the Latin caeruleum, originally referring to dark blue paint pigment of the Roman world, then via French céruléen into English. As a modern art-supply name, cerulean blue is the cobalt-tin oxide pigment introduced in 1805. The color refers to a clean, slightly green-shifted blue with the matte finish of mineral pigment in linseed oil: lighter than cobalt, deeper than aqua, with the painter's weight of a word for sky.