Sterile Wool 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.

Old English wull, wool. As a color modifier, wool implies a sheep-fleece-and-warm quality, the visual register of Cotswold-and-Welsh-and-Highland hand-spun-and-hand-woven sheep-fleece-and-felted Cotswold-Welsh-Highland wool-textile surfaces under hand-spun-and-felted-wool textile light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to silk and yarn 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.