Sterile Hun Verdigris

Latin sterilis, barren / not-fertile — sharing root with Greek steiros (barren). As a color modifier, sterile implies a clear-and-medical-clean-and-stripped quality, the crisp color of operating-theater surgical-environment white-and-stainless-steel surfaces. Sits at the crisp-and-clean end of the grid, parallel to sanitary and hygienic in usage.

Greek Hunni, Huns. As a color modifier, hun implies a Central-Asian-steppe-migration quality, the visual register of Attila-the-Hun late-Roman-period Central-Asian steppe-migration-and-mounted-archery hand-built warrior-camp surfaces under Central-Asian-steppe-and-Pannonian-plain Hunnic-Age horse-archer light. Sits at the modifier-and-cultural end of the grid, parallel to vandal and goth in usage.

The basic copper carbonate that forms on weathered copper and bronze — the pigment scraped from oxidized metal and used in Renaissance painting before being supplanted by more stable greens. The color refers to a thick verdigris on aged copper roofing or the Statue of Liberty's surface: a soft, slightly muted blue-green with the powdery finish of mineral oxide. Cooler than patina, warmer than seafoam, with the archaeological weight of a mineral made by time.