Wiktionary

purple

See also: Purple

English

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Various shades of purple.

Etymology

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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.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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purple (plural purples)

  2. A colour between red and magenta; violet, though often closer to magenta.
    web colour:  
    Synonym: blue-red
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 596–597:
      Arraying with reflected Purple and Gold / The Clouds that on his Weſtern Throne attend.
  3. (colour theory) Any non-spectral colour on the line of purples on a colour chromaticity diagram or a colour wheel between violet and red.
  4. Cloth, or a garment, dyed a purple colour; especially, a purple robe, worn as an emblem of rank or authority; specifically, the purple robe or mantle worn by Ancient Roman emperors as the emblem of imperial dignity.
    to put on the imperial purple
  5. (by extension) Imperial power.
    • 1776-1788, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
      He was born in the purple.
    • 1829 March, “Napoleon a Sainte Helene. Opinion d’un Medecin sur la Maladie de l’Empereur Napoleon, et sur la Cause de sa Mort; offerte a son Fils, au Jour de sa Majorite. Par S. Hereau, […]”, in James Johnson, editor, The Medico-Chirurgical Review, and Journal of Practical Medicine, volume X, number XX, London: […] S. Highley, […], page 434:
      When we picture to ourselves his [Napoleon’s] dawning military genius at Toulon—his daring and decided politics in the storms of the Revolution—his Cæsarian ambition in assuming the purple—[…]
    • 1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, I.29:
      The immediate successors of Augustus indulged in appalling cruelties towards senators and towards possible competitors for the purple.
  7. Any of various species of mollusks from which Tyrian purple dye was obtained, especially the common dog whelk.
  8. The purple haze cultivar of cannabis in the kush family, either pure or mixed with others, or by extension any variety of smoked marijuana.
    • 2005, Tipi Paul, Wanna Smoke?: The Adventures of a Storyteller, page 14:
      "Sure, some purple Owlsley."
    • 2010, Mark Arax, West of the West, page 221:
      “Purple smoke is no joke. Especially when it is real purple. The smell, taste, and high is easily one of the best in the world. One bowl of some purple Kush, and I'm done for a couple of hours.
    • 2011, Danielle Santiago, Allure of the Game, page 148:
      She preferred to smoke some good purple, but getting high wasn't an option.
  9. (medicine) Purpura.
  10. Earcockle, a disease of wheat.
  11. Any of the species of large butterflies, usually marked with purple or blue, of the genus Basilarchia (formerly Limenitis).
    the banded purple
  12. A cardinalate.
  13. (slang, US) Ellipsis of purple drank.
    • 2012, “Magic”, in Pluto, performed by Future ft. T.I.:
      Fishtailing out the parking lot leaving Magic / Sipping on the purple and the yellow, drinking magic
  14. (UK, slang) Synonym of snakebite and black.

Translations

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Adjective

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purple (comparative purpler or more purple, superlative purplest or most purple)

  1. Of a purple hue.
    Synonym: (literary, poetic) purpureal
    • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 40:
      So this was my future home, I thought! […] Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.
  2. (US politics) Not predominantly red or blue, but having a mixture of Democrat and Republican support.
    purple state
    purple city
    • 2010, Hal K. Rothman, The Making of Modern Nevada, University of Nevada Press, →ISBN, page 162:
      In the end, Nevada remained the quintessential purple state. On the maps that television used to illustrate political trends, Republican states were red and Democratic blue. Nevada blended the colors. It had a bright blue core in the heart of Las Vegas, surrounded by a purple suburban belt. Most of the rest of the state was bright red, especially in the rural counties.
    • 2011 May 7, Margalit Fox, “Lanny Friedlander, Founder of Reason Magazine, Dies at 63”, in The New York Times‎[1], →ISSN:
      As Mr. Friedlander conceived it, Reason was neither strictly right-wing libertarian nor strictly left — in modern parlance, neither red nor blue but a purple amalgam of the two.
    • 2023 May 4, Frank Bruni, “Republicans Are Running Wild in My State”, in The New York Times‎[2]:
      Political colorists can be promiscuous in calling states purple, but my state is true to that hue. I speak of North Carolina, and I have receipts: While our junior senator, Ted Budd, is a Republican who won election to a first term in 2022 by about three percentage points, our governor, Roy Cooper, is a Democrat who won election to a second term in 2020 by more than four.
  3. (in Netherlands and Belgium) Mixed between social democrats and liberals.
  4. Imperial; regal.
  5. Blood-red; bloody.
  6. (of language) Extravagantly ornate, like purple prose.
    • 1979 August 4, Rob Schmieder, “Anything a Man Does”, in Gay Community News, page 15:
      A writer who has made a career of churning out thick novels may be expected to write too quickly to notice that patches of her writing are unbearably purple.
  7. (motor racing, of a sector, lap, etc.) Completed in the fastest time so far in a given session.

Antonyms

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  • (antonym(s) of “having purple as its colour”): nonpurple

Translations

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Verb

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purple (third-person singular simple present purples, present participle purpling, simple past and past participle purpled)

  1. (intransitive) To turn purple in colour.
    • 1966, James Workman, The Mad Emperor, Melbourne, Sydney: Scripts, page 143:
      [T]he Capri cliffs, the tops of which were still pink against the purpling sky.
    • 1999, David Edelstein, In Nomine: Corporeal Player's Guide, Steve Jackson Games,, →ISBN, page 8:
      The gang leader purpled and raised his gun.
  2. (transitive) To dye purple.
  3. (transitive) To clothe in purple.

Derived terms

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See also

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Colors/Colours in English (layout · text)
             red          orange              yellow              green              blue (incl.      indigo;
             cyan, teal, turquoise) 		             purple / violet
         pink (including
         magenta) 		         brown      white              gray/grey      black

Anagrams

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Middle English

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Noun

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purple (uncountable)

  1. Alternative form of purpel

Adjective

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purple

  1. Alternative form of purpel
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