Art & MusicGreek → English
Purple
/ˈpɜːpəl/noun
The colour between red and blue, long associated with royalty.
The Greek roots
πορφύρα
porphýra
purple dye, murex shellfish
Literally: “the murex dye”
Follow a root:πορφύρα2 words
The story of the word
Πορφύρα was the sea snail before it was the colour. Tyrian dye was extracted from the murex gland in such small quantities that thousands of shells went into one garment, which is why Roman law reserved the shade for emperors and why being born in the purple meant born to rule. Old English borrowed the Latin purpura, and the second r dissimilated to l in the word we use now. Porphyry, the imperial stone, keeps the Greek spelling.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Old English → English
- First recorded
- Old English
Same family
porphyryporphyria
In a sentence
The dyer got a purple so dark it read as black until the light hit it.