Steady Rune 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.

Old Norse rún, secret-or-runic-letter. As a color modifier, rune implies a Norse-runic-letter-and-Futhark-and-incised-stone quality, the visual register of Elder-Futhark-and-Norse-runic-stone hand-Norse-runic-letter-and-Futhark-and-incised-stone Elder-Futhark-and-Norse-runic-stone-and-Viking-grave-marker rune-and-Norse-runic-letter-and-Futhark surfaces under Elder-Futhark-and-Norse-runic-stone-and-Viking-grave-marker Jelling-stone-and-Rök-runestone runic-incision-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to omen and sigil 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.