purple

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A colour made by mixing red and blue.

   Her favourite colour is purple.

2. 2
   adj

   Having the colour purple.

   She wore a beautiful purple dress to the party.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Purple ultimately comes from Greek porphyra, the name of a costly crimson dye obtained from molluscs. Because the dye varied considerably in shade, the word gradually came to denote the color between red and blue now called purple. From the late 16th century it also developed the figurative sense “ornate” or “striking,” as in purple prose.

From Middle English purple, purpel, from Old English purpul (“purple”, adjective), taken from Old English purpure (“purple colour”, noun), from Latin purpura (“purple dye, shellfish”), from Ancient Greek πορφύρα (porphúra, “purple-fish”), perhaps of Semitic origin. Doublet of purpura and purpure. The sense of "imperial power" is from the wearing of the color purple by emperors and kings.

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