Level Inca Teal

Latin libella, small-balance / level-tool — sharing root with libra (balance). As a color modifier, level implies a clear-and-horizontal-true quality where the hue carries the visual register of gravity-perpendicular-and-perfectly-horizontal surface. Sits at the crisp-and-balanced end of the grid, parallel to plumb and flat in usage.

Quechua Inka, prince. As a color modifier, inca implies a Cuzco-and-Andean-Imperial quality, the visual register of Inca-Empire hand-cut stone-and-textile-and-quipu Inca-Imperial Andean-Highland and-Sapa-Inca surfaces under high-altitude Inca-Empire Cuzco-and-Machu-Picchu Andean-Highland light. Sits at the modifier-and-cultural end of the grid, parallel to aztec and toltec 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.