Etymologically
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purpura

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈpʊr.pʊ.ra], [ˈpʊr.pʊ.raː][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈpur.pu.ra], [ˈpur.pu.ra][1]

Forms

purpura f (genitive purpurae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek πορφύρα (porphúra, “purple fish, purple dye”), borrowed early, as the ⟨u⟩ for Greek ⟨υ⟩ and ⟨p⟩ for ⟨φ⟩ show.[2][1][3] Köbler calls the further origin of the Greek word unclear.[4] Isidore derived it from the purity of light.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is the Twelve Tables, which he dates about 450 BC.[4] The OLD's earliest citations are from Ennius, of the shellfish and the dye, and Plautus, of purple cloth.[2]

Semantic evolution

It meant the shellfish yielding a purple dye, probably the murex, the dye itself, from blood-red to violet, and purple-dyed cloth as a sign of wealth, as in Plautus.[2][6] In Cicero it was the dress of kings, in Ovid the purple-bordered toga of the consuls and their office, and in Pliny the Elder the purple stripe of senators and knights.[2][7] In Virgil it meant purple colour in nature, as of violets, and it apparently also meant porphyry.[2]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant purple or purple cloth, rēgis purpura “royal purple”.[8] Medieval Latin used it of purple trimmings on clothes.[9] It was borrowed by the 9th century into Old English as purpure, whence English purple, and in 1753 English purpura became the name of a disease with purple patches.[10]

Timeline

  • c. 450 BC – The Twelve Tables use it.[4]
  • 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it of the shellfish and the dye.[2][4]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of royal dress.[2][4]
  • by 9th century – Old English purpure is recorded, the source of purple.[10]
  • 1753 – English purpura names a disease.[10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The purple-fish, murex.[2]
  2. Purple dye.[2]
  3. Purple cloth; royal dress; the consular toga; the senatorial stripe.[2]
  4. Purple colour in nature.[2]
  5. Porphyry.[2]

Word family

  • purpurārius
  • purpurātus
  • purpureus
  • purpurō
  • purpurāmentum
  • purpurascō
  • purpurētica
  • purpurissātus
  • purpurissum
  • purpurīticus
  • English purple
  • English purpura
  • English porphyry

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
  6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  8. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  9. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  10. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com