Searchable Lemmata: purple (OE), purpel (ME), purpill (Oscots), purple (MdE).
Alternate Forms: porpel, pourpul, purpalle, purpul, purpull, purpulle.
1a(n.)
Dye;
originally as a colour adjective, by the 14th century used as the adjective as well as the noun describing a dye or colour of dark red or crimson; originally the Tyrian purple dye extracted in ancient times from a gland of molluscs of the genera Purpura, Murex, Thais, Buccinum and Mucella. Often the colour was limited for use by kings, emperors or nobility. Note the phrase 'born to the purple' = literally born in the purple chamber reserved for Byzantine royalty, hence 'of high birth'. Also, general name for deep blue/red colouring, not necessarily derived from molluscs (e.g. lichen purple).(ante 1066 still in current use)
1. Exiit ergo iesus portans spinieam coronam et purpuream uestimentum : eode forðon ðe hælend berende ðyrnenne beg & purple hrægle fellereode wede [OE Lindisf. þæt purbple hrægl uel þæt felleread uoede, OE West Saxon Gospels: Corpus Cambr. purpuren reaf, c1200 Hatton purpre reaf].
Biblical/Hagiographic.
[OED Rushw. Gospels (John xix. 5) ante 1066]
2. [416] ... Purfyle of a clothe [vr. purfoyl]: Limbus ... [417] ... Pur-poynt [Win: Purpoynte], bed hyllynge: Pulvinarium, plumea, culcitra punctata ... Purpul: Purpura ... Purskeruare: Bursida
Gloss.
[MED PParv. ((Hrl 221) 416-417) 1440]
3. [106/10] ... And þei schule be cloþed wiþ ournamentis, wiþ gold, & purpur, & wiþ bri3t cloþinge as of spouses ... [106/27] ... Þai sal be cled with ornamentes of gold & purpyll [Meth.(1): wiþ gold & purpur]
Philosophy.
[MED Methodius(1) ((Hrl 1900) 106/10) ante 1425]
Sex: N/A Use: n/a Status: High Rank: High Ceremonial: No
Body Parts: N/A.
1b(n.)
Dye;
used in heraldic contexts, the tincture purple, perhaps sometimes indistinguishable from gules.(circa 1460)
Sex: N/A Use: n/a Ceremonial: Yes
Body Parts: N/A.
1c(n.)
Dye;
appears in compounds: blew purple (the colour of an iris, ?a1450); red purpyl (?a1450).(circa 1450)
Sex: N/A Use: n/a Status: n/a Rank: n/a Ceremonial: No
Body Parts: N/A.
2(n.)
Textile;
cloth or thread dyed purple; rich, irridescent, silk cloth or garment usually dyed a purple colour (in specific uses usually referring to a royal cloth or garment), but also appearing in other colours (see Dodwell, C. R. (1982), pp. 145-50). Cf. purpure.(circa 1390 still in current use)
1. [38] ... I-put he [Job] was in pore array, Nouþer in purpul ne in pal, But in symple wede ... [66] ... 3if þou beo a fryk mon in þi floures, And haue vnbou3t boþe purpel & pal, At Masse..Þer-in þi sauor is ful smal.
Poetic.
[MED Bi a wey ((Vrn) 38-66) circa 1390]
Sex: N/A Use: n/a Status: High Rank: High Ceremonial: No
Body Parts: N/A.
Definite, The adj. purple appears rarely before the 14th century (cf. purpure).
The noun form purple (ME purpel) is an alteration of OE purpur, L purpura (compare MHG purpul, Swedish purple [18th cent.]. Purple first appears used as an adj., and only as a noun in the 14th century; its use in English supplanted purpure as the noun and adjective for the colour by the end of the 17th, except in heraldic uses (s.v. 'purple, adj. and n.', OED3).
WF: Derivation
Etym Cog:
References:
