Pressed Nereid Turquoise

Latin pressāre, to press — past-participle of press. As a color modifier, pressed implies a clear-and-smoothed-and-flattened quality, the crisp color of Mid-Century-Modern freshly-pressed-shirt-and-trouser ironed-textile finish. Sits at the crisp-and-finished end of the grid, parallel to ironed and starched in usage.

Greek Νηρηΐς, sea-nymph-daughter-of-Nereus. As a color modifier, nereid implies a sea-nymph-and-Aegean-foam quality, the visual register of Hellenic-Nereid-and-Aegean-sea-nymph hand-sea-nymph-and-Aegean-foam Hellenic-Nereid-and-Aegean-sea-nymph-and-Poseidon-court nereid-and-sea-nymph-and-Aegean-foam surfaces under Hellenic-Nereid-and-Aegean-sea-nymph-and-Poseidon-court Aegean-island-and-rocky-cove sea-nymph-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to nymph and dryad in usage.

The hydrated copper-aluminum phosphate mined in Persia and the American Southwest for thousands of years — the firuze of Iran, the chalchihuitl of Mesoamerica, the heart of Pueblo and Navajo silverwork. The color refers to a fine Sleeping Beauty turquoise from Arizona: a saturated, slightly green-shifted blue with the slight matrix of host-rock veining. Brighter than persian, lighter than cerulean.