Refreshing Lull Teal

Old French refreschir, to make fresh again — present-participle of refresh. As a color modifier, refreshing implies a clear-and-cool-and-revitalizing quality, the crisp color of Cornish-coast and Hebridean-island fresh-sea-air-and-cool-water revitalization. Sits at the crisp-and-cool end of the grid, parallel to fresh and bracing in usage.

Middle English lullen, to-sing-to-sleep. As a color modifier, lull implies a hushed-and-pacified-and-cradled quality, the visual register of cradle-song-and-vesper-lull hand-cradled-and-rocked cradle-and-cot-and-crib hand-rocked-and-sung-to-lulled-and-cradled lulled-and-cradled surfaces under cradle-song-and-vesper hush-and-quiet-and-still bedside-and-nursery-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to hush and soothe 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.