Phosphoric Pang Lime

Greek phōsphóros, light-bringer — adjectival suffix -ic. As a color modifier, phosphoric implies a saturated-and-cool-glow quality, the bright color of match-tip-strike and firefly phosphorus-emission luminescence. Sits at the bright-and-cool end of the grid, parallel to phosphorescent and fluorescent in usage.

Middle English pang, sudden-sharp-pain. As a color modifier, pang implies a sudden-and-piercing-and-sharp quality, the visual register of Petrarchan-sonnet-and-courtly-love-pang hand-sudden-and-piercing-and-sharp Petrarchan-sonnet-and-courtly-love-and-troubadour-lyric panged-and-sudden-and-piercing-and-sharp surfaces under Petrarchan-sonnet-and-courtly-love-and-troubadour-lyric pierced-and-yearning-and-stricken candlelit-poet-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to ache and throb in usage.

Citrus aurantiifolia and its key-lime cousin — small, intensely sour green citrus carried by Arab traders from Southeast Asia to the Mediterranean by the eleventh century, then to the Caribbean with Columbus. The color refers to the skin of a fully ripe Persian lime: a saturated, slightly yellow-shifted green with the matte finish of citrus rind. Cooler than chartreuse, sharper than sage, with the same chlorophyll the fruit loses if left to ripen to yellow.