πορφύρεος

Forms

πορφύρεος (porphúreos) m (feminine πορφυρέη, neuter πορφύρεον); first/second declension^[1] Attic contracted πορφυροῦς (porphuroûs), and Aeolic πορφύριος (porphúrios) (Sappho, Alcaeus).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek πορφύρα (porphúrā, “purple dye, purple shellfish”) + -εος (-eos).^[1][4] Beekes finds no Indo-European connection for the noun and takes it as probably a loan from a Mediterranean language, perhaps Pre-Greek;^[4] Rosół rejects an old comparison with an Aramaic word for the dawn.^[5]

In Homer, where the word describes heaving waves and gushing blood, LSJ and the CGL suspect association with πορφύρω (porphúrō, “to surge, heave”), and Beekes compares the pair μαρμάρεος (marmáreos) from μαρμαίρω (marmaírō);^[2][3][4][6] Wiktionary treats the link with the verb as a folk etymology.^[1]

It probably became Latin purpureus.^[1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it describes the sea and a river's waves, heaving or gleaming, gushing blood, death in battle (πορφύρεος θάνατος), the rainbow and a cloud, and purple cloths: cloaks, robes, blankets and rugs.^[6][2][3]

Semantic evolution

Later it means chiefly “purple-dyed”, of fabrics and garments that suggest wealth and luxury (Herodotus, Euripides, Xenophon), and “purple-coloured”, of wings and garlands (Pindar, Theognis) and of a kind of rock-salt (Herodotus).^[3][2] Of the human complexion it means rosy: Anacreon's Aphrodite, Simonides' girl's mouth.^[2][3] Lyric poets also use it of the dark sea.^[3] Hesychius explains Homer's purple death as black, deep and turbulent.^[2][8]

In the New Testament it is the purple robe put on Jesus and the purple of Revelation.^[9] Modern Greek has the learned πορφυρός (porfyrós), “deep red”, remade from the contracted Attic form.^[10][1]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it of waves, gushing blood, death in battle, the rainbow and purple cloth.^[6][2]
• 7th–6th century BC – Sappho and Alcaeus use the Aeolic form.^[2][11]
• 6th century BC – Anacreon calls Aphrodite “purple”, of her rosy complexion.^[2][3][11]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it of purple swaddling clothes and wings.^[12][2][11]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of purple garments and of a kind of rock-salt.^[3][2][11]
• 2nd century AD – Lucian uses it of people dressed in purple.^[2][11]
• 5th century AD (probably) – Hesychius explains Homer's “purple death” as black, deep and turbulent.^[2][8][11]
• Modern Greek – The learned πορφυρός (porfyrós) means deep red.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (Epic) Of waves: heaving, surging; or dark, gleaming.^[2][3][6]
2. Of blood: gushing, dark red; of death in battle, dark or bloody.^[2][3]
3. Of the rainbow or a cloud: purple, lurid.^[2][3]
4. Purple, crimson: dyed purple, of cloths and garments.^[2][3]
5. Purple-coloured, of wings, garlands and rock-salt.^[3]
6. Of the complexion: rosy, flushing.^[2][3]
7. Dressed in purple.^[2]

Related words

• πορφύρω (porphúrō)
• Latin purpureus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
4. ^ a b c Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
6. ^ a b c d Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
7. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
8. ^ a b Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
9. ^ Thayer, Joseph Henry (1889), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, New York: American Book Company
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
11. ^ a b c d e f Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
12. ^ Slater, William J. (1969), Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: De Gruyter