Neon Awe Turquoise

Greek néon, new — element-name (atomic-number 10), discovered by William Ramsay in 1898. As a color modifier, neon implies a saturated-and-electric-glow quality, the bright color of Las-Vegas-and-Times-Square neon-marquee gas-discharge-tube emission. Sits at the bright-and-electric end of the grid, parallel to electric and fluorescent in usage.

Old Norse agi, fright-and-reverence. As a color modifier, awe implies a reverent-and-overwhelmed-and-hushed quality, the visual register of Burkean-sublime-and-Caspar-David-Friedrich-awe hand-reverent-and-overwhelmed-and-hushed Burkean-sublime-and-Caspar-David-Friedrich-and-Romantic-vista awed-and-reverent-and-overwhelmed-and-hushed surfaces under Burkean-sublime-and-Caspar-David-Friedrich-and-Romantic-vista alpine-and-storm-cloud-and-mountain-pass cathedral-of-nature-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to bliss and grace 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.