Starched Copse Teal

Old English stercan, to stiffen — past-participle of starch. As a color modifier, starched implies a clear-and-stiff-and-formal quality, the crisp color of Edwardian-period formal-evening-shirt-and-collar starched-and-pressed dress-attire. Sits at the crisp-and-finished end of the grid, parallel to pressed and ironed in usage.

Old French copeiz, cut wood. As a color modifier, copse implies a small-coppiced-wood quality, the visual register of English-hedgerow-and-pasture-margin small coppiced-hazel-and-hornbeam wood-fragment hand-cut surfaces under small-shaded English-hedgerow filtered light. Sits at the modifier-and-place end of the grid, parallel to wood and grove 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.