Polished Waft Lagoon

Latin polīre, to polish — past-participle of polish. As a color modifier, polished implies a clear-and-smooth-and-glossy quality where the hue carries the visual register of buffed-and-burnished smooth-finish surface. Sits at the crisp-and-finished end of the grid, parallel to burnished and gleaming in usage.

Middle English waft, related to wafian, to-wave-in-air. As a color modifier, waft implies a gently-conveyed-and-air-borne-and-drifting quality, the visual register of incense-and-rose-petal-waft hand-gently-conveyed-and-air-borne-and-drifting incense-and-rose-petal-and-summer-curtain wafted-and-gently-conveyed-and-air-borne surfaces under incense-and-rose-petal-and-summer-curtain church-thurible-and-walled-rose-garden-and-open-window airborne-drift-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to drift and mist 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.