Hemmed Aries Teal

Old English hem, border — past-participle of hem. As a color modifier, hemmed implies a clear-and-finished-and-bordered quality where the hue carries the visual register of carefully-hemmed-and-finished textile-edge. Sits at the crisp-and-finished end of the grid, parallel to trim and finished in usage.

Latin aries, ram-of-the-fleece. As a color modifier, aries implies a ram-and-fire-sign-and-Mars-ruled-cardinal-fire quality, the visual register of Babylonian-ram-and-Greek-Aries hand-ram-and-fire-sign-and-Mars-ruled-cardinal-fire Babylonian-ram-and-Greek-Aries-and-Golden-Fleece aries-and-ram-and-fire-sign surfaces under Babylonian-ram-and-Greek-Aries-and-Golden-Fleece spring-equinox-and-March-and-April fire-sign-light. Sits at the modifier-and-zodiac end of the grid, parallel to taurus and gemini 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.