Steady Dryad Mint

Old English stede, place, position — drifted to mean firm and unmoving. Used as a color modifier since the seventeenth century for hues that read as reliable rather than dramatic. Steady gray, steady green: moderate saturation combined with optical calmness. Sits in the crisp-bucket center alongside settled.

Greek δρυάς, oak-tree-nymph. As a color modifier, dryad implies an oak-tree-nymph-and-grove-spirit quality, the visual register of Hellenic-dryad-and-oak-grove-nymph hand-oak-tree-nymph-and-grove-spirit Hellenic-dryad-and-oak-grove-nymph-and-Arcadian-grove dryad-and-oak-tree-nymph-and-grove-spirit surfaces under Hellenic-dryad-and-oak-grove-nymph-and-Arcadian-grove Dodona-oak-and-sacred-grove tree-nymph-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to nymph and nereid 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.