Modest Mira Robin

Latin modestus, moderate — used as a color modifier since the sixteenth century for hues that read as understated and unwilling to claim more visual space than they need. Modest taupe, modest beige: moderate-to-low saturation combined with optical restraint. Sits at the crisp-and-quiet edge of the grid alongside quiet and plain.

Latin mira, wonderful-or-marvelous. As a color modifier, mira implies a variable-pulsing-and-red-giant-and-wondrous quality, the visual register of Cetus-Whale-and-variable-Mira-the-Wonder hand-variable-pulsing-and-red-giant-and-wondrous Cetus-Whale-and-variable-Mira-and-Hevelius-discovery mira-and-variable-pulsing-and-red-giant-and-wondrous surfaces under Cetus-Whale-and-variable-Mira-and-Hevelius-discovery 332-day-cycle-and-deep-red-pulse pulsing-stellar-light. Sits at the modifier-and-cosmic end of the grid, parallel to nova and pulsar in usage.

The American robin (Turdus migratorius) — though the color refers not to the bird's red breast but to the egg, robin's-egg blue, a pale slightly green-shifted blue produced by biliverdin pigment in the eggshell. The color is the inside surface of a fresh robin's nest at peak laying: a soft, slightly green-shifted pale blue with the matte finish of avian eggshell. Lighter than aqua, cooler than turquoise.