Sure Tunic Teal

Old French seur, certain — used as a color modifier since the medieval period for hues that read as confident and stable. Sure red, sure blue: moderate saturation combined with optical commitment. Sits at the crisp-bucket center alongside steady and true.

Latin tunica, Roman-undergarment. As a color modifier, tunic implies a Roman-tunic-and-medieval-undergarment quality, the visual register of Roman-tunic-and-medieval-bliaut hand-Roman-tunic-and-medieval-undergarment Roman-tunic-and-medieval-bliaut-and-Carolingian-court tunic-and-Roman-tunic-and-medieval-undergarment surfaces under Roman-tunic-and-medieval-bliaut-and-Carolingian-court Republican-and-Carolingian-Aachen Roman-and-medieval-light. Sits at the modifier-and-textile end of the grid, parallel to chiton and peplos in usage.

Anas crecca, the small dabbling duck whose male in breeding plumage sports a chestnut head crossed by a glossy green-blue stripe. The color refers to that stripe — the iridescent panel just behind the eye: a saturated, slightly muted blue-green with the optical depth of structural color rather than pigment. Cooler than cypress, warmer than cerulean, with the ornithological specificity of a color named for one feather of one bird.