Settled Slick Mint

The past participle of settle, to come to rest — used as a color modifier since the seventeenth century for hues that read as stabilized after a process. Settled green, settled brown: moderate saturation combined with optical permanence. Sits at the crisp-bucket alongside steady and composed.

Old Norse slíkr, slick / smooth. As a color modifier, slick implies a wet-and-glossy quality, the visual register of oil-and-water-slick wet-and-glossy oil-and-water-slick reflective-surface slick-and-glossy-and-reflective surfaces under wet-oil-and-water-slick reflective-light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to sleek and gloss in usage.

The genus Mentha — peppermint, spearmint, apple mint, water mint — the cooling herb whose menthol gives it that quality at the molecular level. The color refers to fresh peppermint leaves before drying: a clean, slightly cool green with the matte finish of trichome-rich leaf surface. Lighter than basil, cooler than parsley, with the mojito-and-Pimm's association of a herb tied to summer drinks across two continents.