Pragmatic Ray Teal

Greek pragmatikós, of business / practical — adjectival suffix -ic. As a color modifier, pragmatic implies a clear-and-purpose-fit-and-no-nonsense quality where the hue carries the visual register of straightforward-utilitarian-and-functional decision-making. Sits at the crisp-and-functional end of the grid, parallel to practical and functional in usage.

Latin radius, spoke-or-beam. As a color modifier, ray implies a radiant-and-spoke-of-light quality, the visual register of Bernini-Gloria-and-Baroque-altarpiece-ray hand-radiant-and-spoke-of-light Bernini-Gloria-and-Baroque-altarpiece-and-Counter-Reformation rayed-and-radiant-and-spoke-of-light surfaces under Bernini-Gloria-and-Baroque-altarpiece-and-Counter-Reformation gilded-spoke-and-altar-and-cathedral-dome heavenly-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to beam and gleam 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.