Fresh Ruff Mint

Old English fersc, unsalted / not stale — sharing root with German frisch. As a color modifier, fresh implies a clear-and-newly-applied quality where the hue carries the just-emerged visual register. Sits at the crisp-and-clean end of the grid, parallel to crisp and new in usage.

Old English ruffe, Elizabethan-pleated-collar. As a color modifier, ruff implies a starched-and-Elizabethan-pleated-collar quality, the visual register of Elizabethan-and-Spanish-Habsburg-ruff hand-starched-and-Elizabethan-pleated-collar Elizabethan-and-Spanish-Habsburg-ruff-and-Holbein-portrait ruff-and-starched-and-Elizabethan-pleated-collar surfaces under Elizabethan-and-Spanish-Habsburg-ruff-and-Holbein-portrait Tudor-and-Spanish-Habsburg-court starched-collar-light. Sits at the modifier-and-textile end of the grid, parallel to gown and frock 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.