Tidy Hover Mint

Old English tidig, timely — drifted in modern English to mean neat, orderly. Used as a color modifier for hues that read as composed and unfussy. Tidy beige, tidy gray: moderate saturation combined with optical neatness. Sits at the crisp-bucket alongside plain and modest.

Middle English hoveren, to-remain-suspended. As a color modifier, hover implies a suspended-and-floating-and-hesitant quality, the visual register of kestrel-and-hummingbird-hover hand-suspended-and-floating-and-hesitant kestrel-and-hummingbird-and-dragonfly hovered-and-suspended-and-floating-and-hesitant surfaces under kestrel-and-hummingbird-and-dragonfly heat-shimmer-and-summer-meadow-and-cliff-edge mid-air-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to float and flit 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.