Plain Muse Ocean

Latin planus, flat, level — used as a color modifier since the medieval period for hues that read as undecorated and direct. Plain white, plain blue: moderate saturation, no shift, no surface effect. Sits in the crisp-bucket center, with the implication of restraint rather than absence.

Latin Musa, goddess-of-inspiration. As a color modifier, muse implies a contemplative-and-inspired-and-poetic quality, the visual register of Helicon-spring-and-Parnassus-muse hand-contemplative-and-inspired-and-poetic Helicon-spring-and-Parnassus-and-Castalian-fount mused-and-contemplative-and-inspired-and-poetic surfaces under Helicon-spring-and-Parnassus-and-Castalian-fount laurel-and-lyre-and-tablet poet's-grove-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to mull and brood in usage.

The body of saltwater that covers seventy percent of Earth's surface — a single connected mass divided by convention into Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Southern, and Arctic. The color refers to the average reflectance of mid-depth temperate ocean: a saturated, slightly green-shifted deep blue with the optical depth of a body of water that absorbs all light below the photic zone. Deeper than mediterranean, cooler than peacock.