Sterile Eddy Lagoon

Latin sterilis, barren / not-fertile — sharing root with Greek steiros (barren). As a color modifier, sterile implies a clear-and-medical-clean-and-stripped quality, the crisp color of operating-theater surgical-environment white-and-stainless-steel surfaces. Sits at the crisp-and-clean end of the grid, parallel to sanitary and hygienic in usage.

Old Norse iða, whirlpool-or-current. As a color modifier, eddy implies a small-circling-and-counter-current quality, the visual register of river-bend-and-tidal-pool-eddy hand-small-circling-and-counter-current river-bend-and-tidal-pool-and-rock-shelter eddied-and-small-circling-and-counter-current surfaces under river-bend-and-tidal-pool-and-rock-shelter Highland-burn-and-coastal-cove curl-and-spiral-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to swirl and stir 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.