Etymologically
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purpuratus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [pʊr.pʊˈraː.tʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [pur.puˈraː.tus][1]

Forms

purpurātus (feminine purpurāta, neuter purpurātum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin purpura (“purple”) + -ātus.[2][3][1] purpura is borrowed from Ancient Greek πορφύρα (porphúra, “purple fish, purple dye”).[2][4][1] Priscian testifies that the second-last syllable is long.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first, in the Mostellaria: a beautiful woman will be lovelier naked than dressed in purple.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

As a noun it is a high official at a king's court, especially an eastern one, named from his purple dress: Cicero uses it in the Tusculan Disputations and, mockingly, of Gabinius as the courtier of a would-be king Lentulus in the speeches against Catiline;[5][2] Livy and Curtius also have the noun.[5][2] Wiktionary records a Medieval Latin use for the children of a Byzantine emperor.[1] Stelten gives “clad in purple”.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of a woman dressed in purple.[2][5][7]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of a royal courtier.[2][5][7]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of courtiers.[5][7]
  • Medieval Latin – A Byzantine emperor's children.[1]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Dressed in purple.[2][5][1][6]

Noun

  1. A high official at a royal, especially an eastern, court; a courtier.[2][5]
  2. (Medieval Latin) The children of a Byzantine emperor.[1]

Usage notes

The TLL treats purpurātus “coloured purple” as a separate word, the participle of purpurō.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de