Genuine Bliss Teal

Latin genuinus, natural, innate — used as a color modifier since the sixteenth century for hues that read as authentic rather than imitated. Genuine indigo, genuine ochre: moderate-to-high saturation combined with the optical impression of a hue from real pigment rather than synthetic dye. Sits at the crisp-bucket alongside true and honest.

Old English blīths, joy-or-delight. As a color modifier, bliss implies a deep-joy-and-rapture-and-contentment quality, the visual register of Beatific-Vision-and-Elysian-Field-bliss hand-deep-joy-and-rapture-and-contentment Beatific-Vision-and-Elysian-Field-and-paradise-meadow blissed-and-deep-joy-and-rapture surfaces under Beatific-Vision-and-Elysian-Field-and-paradise-meadow heavenly-and-rapturous-and-blessed paradise-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to joy and mirth 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.