purple English · revision 6025

+ {{infobox|confidence=uncertain|formation=borrowing|attested=c. 950|origins=grc πορφύρα}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: UK /ˈpɜː.pəl/, US /ˈpɝː.pəl/^(Roach et al. 2011)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is Middle English purpel, [[inh|ang|purpul]], a dissimilated Northumbrian form, first in the Lindisfarne Gospels, of Old English purpure “purple dye, a purple garment” (oblique case purpuran),^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(Hoad 1986) borrowed by the 9th century from [[la|purpura|t=purple colour; purple-dyed cloth; the shellfish yielding the dye]],^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(MWU 2024) from Greek [[m|grc|πορφύρα|tr=porphýra|t=purple dye, the murex shellfish]],^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(Hoad 1986) a word of uncertain origin, perhaps Semitic (see [[porphyry]]).^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988) The r changed to l as in [[marble]].^(Barnhart 1988)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Of the colour of the dress of emperors and kings: about 975 in the OED, about 950 in Barnhart; purpure, a purple garment, is before 899, in Alfred's translation of Orosius.^(OED 1989)^(Barnhart 1988)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The Tyrian purple prized for royal robes was nearer crimson,^(Etymonline)^(Cresswell 2021) and Hoad notes that the word first meant crimson or another red before it named the mixture of red and blue;^(Hoad 1986) the modern colour is from 1398 in the OED.^(OED 1989) Imperial or royal power is ''the purple'' by the 1550s,^(Etymonline) and purple was the colour of royal or church mourning from 1466.^(OED 1989)^(Etymonline) In poetry it is the colour of blood from 1590.^(OED 1989) Rhetorically splendid or gaudy is from the 1590s,^(Etymonline) 1598 in the OED,^(OED 1989) later of prose, and the ''purple patch'' translates Horace's purpureus pannus.^(Cresswell 2021) The verb, to make purple, is from about 1400.^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988) The Purple Heart, the US medal for those wounded in combat, was instituted in 1932, after a cloth badge of George Washington's of 1782,^(Etymonline) and in US politics purple has marked the middle ground between red and blue by 2004.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 950 – of imperial colour.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1398 – the colour between red and blue.^(OED 1989)

+ * c. 1400 – the verb.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1466 – the colour of mourning.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1550s – ''the purple'', royal power.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1590s – ornate, rhetorical.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1932 – the Purple Heart.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # Of a colour between red and [[blue]].^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # Of writing, too elaborate or ornate: ''purple prose''.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # ''(literary)'' Royal or imperial.^(AHD)

+

+ ===Noun===

+ # A colour between red and blue.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # ''(the purple)'' Royal or imperial rank; the rank of a [[cardinal]] or bishop.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ===Verb===

+ # To make or become purple.^(AHD)^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[purpleness]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[porphyry]]

+ * [[purpure]]

+ * [[purplish]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}