Surveyed Aztec Teal

Old French surveer, to look upon — past-participle of survey. As a color modifier, surveyed implies a clear-and-measured-and-coordinated quality, the crisp color of Mason-Dixon-Line-and-Royal-Navy-Hydrographic scientific-and-cadastral land-and-sea surveying tradition. Sits at the crisp-and-mapped end of the grid, parallel to mapped and plotted in usage.

Nahuatl Aztēcatl, one-from-Aztlán. As a color modifier, aztec implies a Mexica-and-Tenochtitlan-Imperial quality, the visual register of Aztec-Empire-of-Tenochtitlan hand-built basalt-and-obsidian-and-feather-and-codex Aztec-Imperial-and-Mexica-tribute surfaces under high-altitude Tenochtitlan Aztec-Empire central-Mexico mid-altitude light. Sits at the modifier-and-cultural end of the grid, parallel to inca 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.