Trim Quell Lagoon

Old English trymman, to make firm — sharing root with firm. As a color modifier, trim implies a clear-and-neatly-arranged quality where the hue carries the visual register of carefully-edited surface-detail. Sits at the crisp-and-neat end of the grid, parallel to neat and tidy in usage.

Old English cwellan, to-kill-or-suppress. As a color modifier, quell implies a stilled-and-suppressed-and-pacified quality, the visual register of vesper-bell-and-curfew-quell hand-stilled-and-pacified-and-suppressed vesper-bell-and-curfew-bell-and-night-watch quelled-and-stilled-and-suppressed surfaces under vesper-bell-and-curfew-bell-and-night-watch hush-and-stillness-and-quiet bell-tower-and-monastery light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to hush and lull in usage.

A shallow body of saltwater partially or fully enclosed by a barrier — coral atoll lagoons in the Pacific, Venice's Laguna Veneta, the Florida Keys' backcountry. The color refers to the average reflectance of a calm tropical lagoon at midday: a saturated, slightly muted blue-green with the optical clarity of shallow water over white sand. Brighter than reef, cooler than aquamarine, with the postcard weight of a Pacific atoll seen from above.