| 释义 |
▪ I. purple, a. and n.|ˈpɜːp(ə)l|
Also 3 purpel, 4–5 purpul, 4–6 -pyl, 5 -pyll, 5–6 -pylle, -pull, -e, -pil(l.
[ONorthumb. purple, early ME. purpel, purpul, altered from purpre, purper purpur, with l for r after preceding r, as in marbre, marble.
In the OE. purpure, ME. purpre, purper, purpur, the n. use was the original, the adj. or attrib. use being later and derivative; but the form purple, purpel, appeared first in adj. or attrib. use, and only in the 15th c. supplanted purpur as the n. But this adjective use of purple itself arose from the OE. n.; the ONorthumb. purple hræȝle showing, like the purpre reaf of the Hatton Gospels, a weakened form either of the OE. genitive purp(u)ran ‘of purple’, or of the derivative adjective purpuren. See also purpur.]
A. adj.
1. a. Of the distinguishing colour of the dress of emperors, kings, etc.; = L. purpureus, Gr. πορϕύρεος, in early use meaning crimson; hence, imperial, royal.
c975Rushw. Gosp. John xix. 5 Eode forðon ðe hælend berende ðyrnenne beᵹ & purple [Lindisf. G. purbple] hræᵹle [Ags. Gosp. purpuren reaf, Hatton Gosp. purpre reaf; L. purpureum vestimentum]. a1225St. Marher. xxvii, Ciclatoun ant purpel pal scaltou haue to wede. c1330King of Tars 364 In cloth of riche purpel palle. c1430Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 120 His purpul mantel his garnementis royalle. 1526Tindale John xix. 2 They did put on hym a purple garment. 1791Cowper Odyss. xxi. 144 Telemachus..Cast off His purple cloak.
b. Of persons: Clad in purple; of imperial or royal rank. poet. or rhet.
a1704T. Brown tr. æneas Sylvius' Death Lucretia Wks. 1709 III. ii. 88 Shou'd my passive Body be pregnant by the purple Villain. 1742Gray Adversity 7 Purple tyrants vainly groan.
2. a. Of the colour described in B. 1, in its mediæval and modern acceptations.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvi. xciv. (1495) 585 Purpyl salt in Pathmos is so bryght and clere that ymages ben seen therin. 1466in Archæologia (1887) L. i. 38, j hole vestment of rede purpyl silke. 1509Hawes Past. Pleas. xxvi. (Percy Soc.) 115 Wyth purple colour the floures enhewed. 1560J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 172 b, He consecrated Anthony..Cardinall of Medone, setting upon his head a purple hatte. 1573–80Baret Alv. P 879 The Purple, or violet colour, conchylium. 1578Lyte Dodoens i. xxxvii. 55 That [pimpernel] whiche beareth the purple floures [of Adonis]. 1696J. Aubrey Misc., Appar. (1784) 117 This Stranger was in a purple-shag gown. 1776Withering Brit. Plants I. 382 Lousewort..Blossoms purple, much slenderer than the calyx. 1792S. Rogers Pleas. Mem. i. 71 When purple evening tinged the west. 1810Scott Lady of L. iii. v, Heath-bell with her purple bloom. 1826Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xlvi. IV. 280 Purple... Equal parts of blue and red. a1839Praed Poems (1864) I. 305 Beneath a purple canopy. 1879O. N. Rood Mod. Chromatics ii. 28 In the prismatic spectrum and in our normal spectrum we found no representative of purple, or purplish tints. This sensation can not be produced by one set of waves alone, whatever their length may be: it needs the joint action of the red and violet waves, or the red and blue.
b. Preceded by an adj. or n. indicating the shade of colour, as amethyst purple, bluish purple, dahlia purple, dark purple, dun purple, etc. (for other instances of which, see the first element). See also B. 1 d.
1629Parkinson Paradisus 182 The three upright leaves are not so smoakie, yet of a dun purple colour. 1802Med. Jrnl. VIII. 497 Her whole skin was always more or less of a bluish purple colour. 1859Ruskin Two Paths v. 202 That lovely dark purple colour of our Welsh and Highland hills is owing, not to their distance merely, but to their rocks. 1882Garden 1 Apr. 210/3 The varieties..sent are..rosy purple..dark livid purple..deep rose purple..venous purple. 1906Daily Chron. 15 Oct. 8/2 Made in dahlia-purple crêpe de chine.
c. Of this colour as being the hue of mourning (esp. royal or ecclesiastical mourning), or of penitence.
1466in Archæologia (1887) L. i. 38 Item j nother purpyll chesebyll for gode fryday. 1493Petronilla 119 With purple wede to the heuenly mancyon Hir soule went up the last day of may. 1542in Archæologia (1887) L. i. 46 Item a vestement purpull silke for good frydaye. 1868Marriott Vest. Chr. 174 The vestments..oftentimes..are purple, in times of fast, because of our mourning in respect of sin.
d. Used poet. to describe the colour of blood. (Properly said of the crimson venous blood, the colour of arterial blood being scarlet.) Hence, Bloody, blood-stained.
1590Spenser F.Q. ii. vi. 29 A large purple streame adowne their giambeux falles. Ibid. viii. 36 The red blood flowed fresh, That underneath his feet soone made a purple plesh. 1593Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, v. vi. 64 See how my sword weepes for the poore Kings death. O may such purple teares be alway shed From those that wish the downfall of our house. 16051st Pt. Ieronimo (1901) ii. v, And by that slaue this purple act was done. 1710Pope Windsor For. 417 There purple Vengeance bathed in gore retires. c1764Gray Owen 33 Where he points his purple spear, Hasty, hasty Rout is there. 1805Scott Last Minstr. i. x, When Mathouse-burn to Melrose ran All purple with their blood. 1819Keats Eve St. Agnes xvi, A thought came like a full-blown rose, Flushing his brow, and in his pained heart Made purple riot.
3. a. Rhetorically. With reference to the qualities of this colour: bright-hued, brilliant, splendid, gaudy, gay; (of sin) deep-dyed, grave, heinous.
purple patch, purple passage, purple piece, a brilliant or ornate passage in a literary composition (after L. purpureus pannus, Hor. De Arte Poet. 15). So purple-patchery, purple patchwork.
1598Queen Elizabeth Horace 20 (E.E.T.S.) 142 Oft to beginnings graue and shewes of great is sowed A purple pace, one or more for vewe. 1697Dryden Virg. Past. ii. 62 All the Glories of the Purple Spring. 1742Gray Ode Spring 4 The rosy-bosom'd Hours..wake the purple year! 1756C. Smart tr. Horace II. 379 One or two verses of purple patchwork, that may make a great shew. a1834Coleridge in Rev. de Litt. Comparée (1927) VII. 253 Admirably reasoned as this Essay is, I yet regard it but as one of the rich Purple Patches of the Robe of Casuistry. 1872Blackie Lays Highl. Introd. 51 Places once flaunting with purple prosperity. 1881Academy 9 Apr. 256/2 A few of the purple patches scattered through the book may serve as a sample of the rest. 1895E. Gosse in Cent. Mag. July 451/2 Emphasizing the purpler passages with lifted voice and gesticulating finger. 1905H. A. Vachell The Hill vii. 147, I never said bridge was a purple sin. 1921Times Lit. Suppl. 9 June 362/1 The back⁓talk between the Emperor and his Empress Nourmahal, in Aurungzebe, is admirable purple comedy. 1926C. Connolly Let. 26 June in Romantic Friendship (1975) 145 He realises his epic to be but a collection of purple patches. 1941Auden New Year Let. ii. 37 And yet to show complete conviction, Requires the purpler kinds of diction. 1941H. Haycraft Murder for Pleasure x. 216 The old, whipped-up underscoring and ‘purple-patchery’. 1943C. L. Wrenn Word & Symbol (1967) 139 An honoured place in English literature through Milton's ‘purple passage’. 1975V. Cunningham Everywhere spoken Against iii. 84 Arnold's famous purple patch about the last enchantments of the Middle Ages. 1975Language for Life (Dept. Educ. & Sci.) xi. 164 Some teachers encourage children to strive for effect, to produce the purple patch, the stock response. 1975C. N. Manlove Mod. Fantasy iii. 78 One [style] is ‘purple’ and highly emotive. 1977Gramophone Sept. 507/3 One is grateful to be spared one of Wilde's purpler passages.
b. colloq. ‘Gorgeous’, ‘splendid’, ‘royal’.
1894Pall Mall G. 20 Dec. 3/2 Who should I see..having a purple time of it but Padishah and Potter. 1905Daily Chron. 19 May 6/3 You had one purple moment in your life—a sackful of coins, and scrambling them among boys.
B. n.
1. The name of a colour.
a. Anciently, that of the dye obtained from species of gastropod molluscs (Purpura and Murex), commonly called Tyrian purple, which was actually a crimson;
b. in the Middle Ages applied vaguely to many shades of red; cf. purpur n. 3;
c. now applied to mixtures of red and blue in various proportions, usually containing also some black or white, or both, approaching on the one side to crimson and on the other to violet.
The various tints are frequently distinguished by the names of flowers, fruits, etc. in which they occur, as auricula purple, dahlia purple, heliotrope purple, plum purple, pomegranate purple, wine purple; also by special names, as Indian purple, royal purple; magenta purple, mauve purple, solferino purple, etc.: see these words.
c1440Promp. Parv. 417/1 Purpul, purpura. 1530Palsgr. 321/2 Purpylle, pourpre. 1570Levins Manip. 125/35 Purpil, purpura, æ. a1586Sidney Arcadia v. (1598) 447 Not that purple which we now haue..but of the right Tyrian purple, which was nearest to a colour betwixt our murry and scarlet. 1614Chapman in C. Brooke Ghost Rich. III, Poems (1872) 49 What does then Thy purple in graine, with these red-oker men? a1649Drummond of Hawthornden Mem. St. Wks. (1711) 131 As the rose, at the fair appearing of the morning sun, displayeth and spreadeth her purples. 1720Ozell Vertot's Rom. Rep. I. vii. 422 The first Prætor of Rome..was allowed the Prætexta, or Robe edged with Purple. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) V. 347 Their plumage is glossed with a rich purple. 1815Byron Destr. Sennacherib i, His cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold. 1873‘Susan Coolidge’ What Katy Did at Sch. xiii. 221 Painted in soft purples and grays. 1888Rolleston & Jackson Anim. Life 474 In the genera Purpura and Murex the secretion [of the hypobranchial gland], at first colourless, changes in sunlight to a purple or violet, used as a dye by the ancients, and known as ‘Tyrian purple’.
d. The Tyrian dye, or any pigment of the above-mentioned colours.
With many defining words, expressing the composition, source, inventor, etc., as alizarin purple, aniline purple, ethyl purple, madder purple, mineral purple, orchil purple or archil purple; French purple, Indian purple, London purple; Field's purple, Perkins's purple, regina purple, etc. purple of Cassius (also purple powder of Cassius C. 2) = gold-purple (gold1 10); named after Andreas Cassius (died 1673).
1638–56Cowley Davideis iii. Note 26 The Purple of the Ancients was taken out of a kind of Shell-fish called Purpura. 1839Ure Dict. Arts, Purple of Cassius, gold purple, is a vitrifiable pigment, which stains glass and porcelain of a beautiful red or purple hue. Ibid., Purple of mollusca, is a viscid liquor, secreted by certain shell-fish, the Buccinum lapillus, and others, which dyes wool, &c. of a purple colour, and is supposed to be the substance of the Tyrian dye. 1853W. Gregory Inorg. Chem. (ed. 3) 220 With solutions of gold, salts of protoxide of tin produce a purple precipitate, the purple of Cassius.
e. visual purple: see visual a. and n.
2. a. Purple cloth or clothing; a purple robe; = purpur n. 1. purple and pall: see purpur n. 1.
Now only in imitations of Latin or Greek, or of biblical language.
c1460Towneley Myst. x. 273 Marie wroght purpyll. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 281 b, The ryche gloton..whiche was clothed in purpull & cloth of reynes. 1526Tindale Acts xvi. 14 Lidia a seller off purple. 1579Spenser Sheph. Cal. July 173 Yclad in purple and pall. 1648Bp. Hall Sel. Thoughts §13 The rich glutton..clothed in purple and byss. 1850S. Dobell Roman i. Poet. Wks. (1875) I. 8 She wraps the purple round her outraged breast. 1894Gladstone Horace, Odes ii. xviii, No well-born maidens, my poor doors within, Laconian purples spin.
b. As the distinguishing dress of emperors, kings, consuls, and chief magistrates; hence fig.; spec. the purple, imperial, royal, or consular rank, power, or office. Also the colour of imperial and royal mourning.
c1440Lydg. Hors, Shepe, & G. (Roxb.) 15 Of purpill rede was his riall clothing This agnus dei born of a pure virgine. 1553Eden Treat. Newe Ind. Ded. (Arb.) 5 No lesse con⁓foundinge the order of thinges, than he whiche clotheth an ape in purple, and a king in sackecloth. 1609Bible (Douay) 1 Esdras iii. 2 King Darius made a great supper..to al that weare purple, and to the praetors. 1610Holland Camden's Brit. (1637) 271 Constantine..laid aside the Purple..[and] became a Priest. 1709Pope Ess. Crit. 320 A vile conceit in pompous words express'd, Is like a clown in regal purple dress'd. 1736Chandler Hist. Persec. 111 They worship not God, but the Purple. 1776Gibbon Decl. & F. xiv. I. 400 As soon as Diocletian and Maximian had resigned the purple. 1869Seeley Lect. & Ess. (1870) 67 The ablest generals are still frequently invested with the purple.
c. the purple: in reference to the scarlet colour of the official dress of a cardinal; hence the rank, state, or office of a cardinal; the cardinalate.
1685Burnet Trav. 8 Dec. (1686) 231 He retains the unaffected simplicity and humility of a Frier, amidst all the dignity of the Purple. 1695Lond. Gaz. No. 3046/1 We are told that the present Duke of Modena..intends to quit the Purple, and to send back his Cardinals Cap to the Pope. 1786W. Thomson Watson's Philip III, vi. (1839) 321 The necessity of exchanging the ease of former familiarity for those ceremonies of respect which were due to the purple... The presence of the cardinal was uneasy to him. 1898L. Villari Life & Times Machiav. II. vi. 237 He was raised to the purple.
d. In phrase born, cradled in (the) purple: said of a child of an imperial or royal reigning family; or by extension, of a noble or wealthy family, or of the highest or most privileged rank of any organization. (Commonly associated with sense 2; but, see, as to the origin, porphyrogenite a.)
1790Burke Let. M. Dupont in Corr. (1844) III. 161 He was born in purple, and of course was not made to a situation which would have tried a virtue most fully perfected. 1827Hallam Const. Hist. (1876) II. x. 268 [Richard Cromwell] would probably have reigned as well as most of those who are born in the purple. 1876Bancroft Hist. U.S. VI. lv. 438 The old Whig party reserved the highest places for those cradled in the purple. 1884Labouchere in Fortn. Rev. Feb. 208 True Liberals who have not had the good fortune to be born in the Whig purple.
3. Any of the species of molluscs which yielded the Tyrian purple (see 1), or any allied species; in mod. use, a mollusc of the genus Purpura. Also called purple-fish.
The species which yielded the Tyrian dye are believed to have been Murex brandaris, M. trunculus, and Purpura hæmostoma (see Proc. Royal Soc. X. 579); but all species of Murex and Purpura secrete the fluid to some extent.
1580Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Pourpre,..a shell fish called a Purple. 1601Holland Pliny I. 306 Purples also be caught by means of some stinking bait. 1682Creech tr. Lucretius vi. 1072 The Purples blood gives Wool so deep a stain That we can never wash it out again. 1715tr. Pancirollus' Rerum Mem. I. i. i. 5 The Tyrians, by taking away the Shells of the greater Purples, do come at that noble Juice. 1755Gentl. Mag. XXV. 32 It belongs to yet another tribe, and is a Purple. 1901Step Shell Life 254 The Purple (Purpura lapillus), commonly known as Dog⁓winkle, and in Ireland as Horse-winkle, is one of the commonest of marine snails.
4.
†a. A purple or livid spot, botch, or pustule; also, the bubo of the plague (obs.).
b. pl. A disease characterized by an eruption of purplish pustules; esp. purpura, but formerly often vaguely used.
c1440Promp. Parv. 417/1 Purplys, sorys, morbuli purpurei dicuntur. 1483Cath. Angl. 294/2 A Purpylle, papula. c1530Hickscorner (1905) 146 God punisheth..with great sickness As pox, pestilence, purple and axes. 1533Elyot Cast. Helthe (1541) 83 b, Whan they [children] waxe elder, than be they greved with kernelles,..swellynges under the chynne, and in England commonly purpyls, measels, and small pockes. 1638R. Baker tr. Balzac's Lett. (vol. II.) 194, I am glad at heart to hear the Duke of Feria is dead of the Purples. 1660Wood Life 3 Dec. (O.H.S.) I. 349 It is thought it is the spotted feaver or purples. 1755Johnson, Purples (without a singular) spots of a livid red, which break out in malignant fevers. 1772tr. Life Lady Guion II. 33 My daughter had the small-pox and the purples. 1866A. Flint Princ. Med. 857 The term purpura, or the purples, denotes an affection characterized by a truly petechial eruption, or petechiæ.
c. purples: swine fever.
1887Times 1 Feb. 9/6 Swine fever..being known in different parts of Great Britain by the names of pig typhoid, pig distemper, purples, swine plague [etc.]. 1897Syd. Soc. Lex., Purples, a common name..for Swine fever.
d. purples: a disease in wheat caused by Vibrio tritici (see quots.).
1808Ann. Agric. XLV. 236 Purples, the, ‘ear-cockle’ in wheat. Ess. 1881E. A. Ormerod Injur. Insects (1890) 104 ‘Cockle galls’ or ‘Purples’ are the small roundish or distorted growths sometimes found in wheat which give to the ear an appearance much as if purplish or dark-coloured peppercorns had taken the place of wheat-grains.
5. A purple flower. long purples: see long a.1 17 c.
1840Browning Sordello v. 295 Plucking purples in Goito's moss. 1905Academy 18 Nov. 1198/1, I took his bunch of purples, and I charmed his heart away.
6. With the, applied to blood: cf. A. 2 d.
1804R. Couper Poetry II. 61 Tibb snyted Madge's muckle nizz, Till out the purple sprang.
7. a. = blueness 4. rare.
1930D. H. Lawrence Phoenix II (1968) 489, I should show the public that here is a fine novel, apart from all ‘purple’ and all ‘words’.
b. the purple: purple passages; esp. in to sub the purple (Journalists' slang), to sub-edit purple passages.
1958E. A. Robertson Justice of Heart iii. 33 A well-known outside contributor from whose copy he had, in his own words, ‘subbed the purple’. Ibid. vi. 84 The ‘subbing of the purple’ was always a painful business for a journalist.
8. slang.
a. = purple-heart 3.
b. = LSD2.
1968C. Drummond Death & Leaping Ladies v. 112, I heard her on at the Doc..about some Purples to key them up but he hit the ceiling. 1971E. E. Landy Underground Dict. 156 Purple, LSD.
C. Combinations and collocations.
I. Of the adjective.
1. General combinations:
a. Parasynthetic, as purple-berried (having purple berries), purple-crested, purple-crowned, purple-eyed, purple-faced, purple-flowered, purple-headed, purple-hearted, purple-hued, purple-leaved, purple-lidded, purple-nosed, purple-robed, purple-skirted, purple-spiked, purple-spotted, purple-tailed, purple-tinged, purple-tipped, purple-topped, purple-veined, purple-vested, purple-zoned, etc. adjs.: freq. in specific names of animals and plants, e.g. purple-berried bay, purple-tailed parakeet. Hence such forms as purple-back, the purple-backed humming bird.
1430Lydg. St. Margarete 25 This daysye with leves rede and white, Purpul-hewed. 1726Pope tr. Homer's Odyssey IV. xix. 263 A mantle purple-ting'd, and radiant vest. 1754Catesby's Nat. Hist. Carol. I. 61 The Purple-berried Bay. 1759Miller Gard. Dict. s.v. Leaf, The Cockscomb, the purple leaved Amaranth. Ibid. s.v. Turnep, The round red or purple topped turnip. 1781Latham Hist. Birds I. 315 Purple-tailed Parrakeet. 1788J. Woodforde Diary 8 July (1927) III. 36 To Mr. Aldridge for 6 Yards of purple spotted Cotton..0.12.0. 1822Hortus Angl. II. 260 Purple-spiked Milk Vetch. Ibid. 333 Purple-eyed Succory Hawk Weed. 1841Lever C. O'Malley lxxxviii, A large purple-faced old major. 1841Bryant Walk at Sunset Wks. 44 Purple-skirted clouds curtain the crimson air. 1846D. J. Browne Trees Amer. 22 Magnolia purpurea, The Purple-flowered Magnolia. 1862J. G. Whittier in Atlantic Monthly Apr. 423 Purple-zoned, Wachuset laid His head against the West. 1868M. Collins Sweet Anne Page I. 241 The golden-fruited and purple-berried leafage. 1881O. Wilde Poems 208 Pansies close their purple-lidded eyes. Ibid. 215 White-shielded, purple-crested rode the Mede. 1887R. B. Sharpe Gould's Trochilidæ Suppl. Pl. 38 Zodalia Ortoni. Quito Purpleback. 1908E. J. Banfield Confess. Beachcomber i. iii. 96 Purple-crowned Fruit Pigeon, Ptilopus superbus. 1910Daily Chron. 25 Mar. 6/5 The minute purple-hearted blossoms. 1913Conrad Chance i. i. 8 He envied the purple-nosed old cab-drivers on the stand. 1921G. Bell Let. 25 Nov. (1927) II. xxi. 627 Grassy hollows where a tiny spring would rise cradled in purple-flowered mint. 1952A. G. L. Hellyer Sanders's Encycl. Gardening (ed. 22) 130 C[orylus]..maxima.., var. atropurpurea, purple-leaved. Ibid. 277 L[ilium]..daliense, white, purple-spotted. Ibid. 393 P[opulus]..tremula, ‘Aspen’,..with vars. pendula, ‘Weeping Aspen’, and purpurea, purple-tinged foliage. 1962R. Page Education of Gardener x. 281, I used..Corylus maxima purpurea, the purple-leaved hazel. 1971Country Life 17 June 1521/3 The purple-leaved filbert, (Corylus maxima purpurea)..responds well to stooling.
b. Qualifying the names of other colours or shades, as purple-black, purple-blue, purple-brown, purple-crimson, purple-dark, purple-green, purple-grey, purple-pink, purple-rose, purple-yellow adjs.; also as ns. See also purple-red.
1587Mirr. Mag., Induct. xi, At length appeared Clad in purple blacke Sweete Somnus. 1601Holland Pliny I. 91 Shell fishes that yeeld the purple crimson colour. 1835–6Todd's Cycl. Anat. I. 553/1 A..layer of a dark purple-brown pigment. 1845J. R. Lowell in Harbinger 2 Aug. 122/3 Far away on Katahdin thou towerest, Purple-blue with the distance. 1856Geo. Eliot in J. W. Cross Life Geo. Eliot (1885) I. vii. 401 The Corallina officinalis..with its purple-pink fronds. 1882Garden 22 July 65/2 Varying in colour from a deep purple-rose to a delicate rose-pink. Ibid. 2 Sept. 207/3 Agaricus violaceus, a splendid purple-yellow, growing among dead leaves. 1897Allbutt's Syst. Med. IV. 529 The surface of the spleen..is often found to be of a black or purple-green colour. 1897Purple-brown [see Italian earth]. 1928V. Woolf Orlando vi. 243 The wine-blue purple-dark hill. 1930J. dos Passos 42nd Parallel 147 Purplegray murk rose steadily. 1952A. G. L. Hellyer Sanders's Encycl. Gardening (ed. 22) 93 C[atasetum]..Rodigasianum, flowers many, greenish, spotted purple-brown. 1957Purple-blue [see dracocephalum]. 1960Purple-black [see Carlsbad]. 1964M. Hynes Med. Bacteriol. (ed. 8) 484 A colony subcultured on to the medium gives a purple-pink colour from NH3 production in 2–8 hours.
c. Adverbial, as purple-beaming, purple-dawning, purple-dyeing, purple-glowing, purple-staining, purple-streaming adjs.
1595Daniel Civ. War ii. cxxii, Riuers dide With purple streaming wounds of her owne rage. 1753Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v. Trumpet-shell, The purple-dying liquor of the buccinum. 1760Fawkes tr. Anacreon, Odes lxiv. 4 Safely shroud Me in a purple-beaming Cloud. 1802Bingley Anim. Biog. (1813) III. 465 The purple-staining whelk. 1898Month Nov. 458 The purple-glowing heather.
2. a. Special collocations: purple airway [airway 2], a route reserved for an aircraft on which royalty is flying; purple chamber: see porphyrogenite, and cf. B. 2 d; purple-coat, a person dressed in a purple coat; cf. red-coat; so purple-coated a.; purple copper (ore) Min., a native sulphide of copper and iron; = erubescite; purple death slang, a cheap Italian red wine; purple fly, a kind of anglers' artificial fly; purple haze slang = LSD2; purple lake [lake n.6], a purple pigment; purple-man, an Irish party name for one who has reached a certain degree or rank in the ‘Orange’ system; cf. Orangeman; so purple meeting; purple membrane, a membrane found within the cell membrane of the bacterium Halobacterium halobium; purple powder of Cassius: see B. 1 d; purple quartz, the amethyst; also, a local name for fluorspar; purple rash, an eruption of purple pustules; purple zone = purple airway. See also purple fever.
1958Sunday Times 30 Mar. 5/1 Now that the Duke of Edinburgh is doing a lot of flying, warnings about ‘*purple airway’ are more frequently given to commercial pilots. Purple airway is a reserved track for a Royal flight.
1831Scott Ct. Rob. iii, An imperial princess porphyrogenita, or born in the sacred *purple chamber itself. Ibid. xxi, You are a child of the purple chamber.
1644Vicars God in Mount 200 The Lord Brooke his *Purple-coats..did most singular good service all this fight.
1906Westm. Gaz. 3 July 1/3 The scarlet- or *purple-coated seminarists pause for breath.
1796Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) II. 374 *Purple Copper Ore. 1881Raymond Gloss. Mining, Copper-ores,..purple copper (variegated or peacock ore, bornite, sulphide of copper and iron).
1947D. M. Davin Gorse blooms Pale 199 Everyone goes for the *purple death.
1799G. Smith Laboratory II. 311 *Purple⁓fly. Dubbing, of purple wool, and a little bear's hair mixed [etc.].
1967J. Hendrix in 40 Greatest Songs (1975) 28 *Purple haze is in my brain lately things don't seem the same. 1970Times 24 Mar. 2/3 The American LSD..has been coming in..under such exotic names as..‘purple haze’, and ‘blue cheer’. 1971Current Slang (Univ. S. Dakota) VI. 9 Purple haze, LSD cut with methedrine.
1821London Mag. Sept. 290/2 The *purple-lake-coloured stuffs. 1869Bradshaw's Railway Man. XXI. 460/2 (Advt.), Reds..Crimson Lake—Scarlet and Purple ditto. 1934H. Hiler Notes on Technique of Painting ii. 123 Crimson lake, Purple lake, etc., now usually made from alizarin... Also prepared from cochineal... Should be regarded as obsolete.
1830–3W. Carleton Traits & Stor. Irish Peasantry Ser. ii. (1843) I. 199, I am a true blue, sir,—a *purple man. 1836Fraser's Mag. XIII. 393 The very names of ‘Orange⁓man’ and ‘Purpleman’ are beneath the real elevation of their high and noble cause.
1906Daily News 10 Feb. 8/2 Injuries inflicted on the roadside..after a ‘*purple’ meeting in the Bush Side Orange Hall.
1968Stoeckenius & Kunau in Jrnl. Cell Biol. XXXVIII. 344/1 The purple band, henceforth called *purple membranes, contains considerably less RNA and slightly less lipid than the orange-red fraction. 1975Nature 25 Dec. 766/2 Halobacterium halobium is indigenous to warm saline pools exposed to bright sunlight. Strains of this bacterium synthesise a purple pigment in the cell membrane (the ‘purple membrane’).
1823Ure Dict. Chem. 492/2 A plate of tin, immersed in a solution of gold, affords a purple powder, called the *purple powder of Cassius, which is used to paint in enamel.
1836Brande Man. Chem. 1028 note, *Purple quartz or amethyst, is tinged with a little iron and manganese. 1896Cosmopolitan XX. 450 The fluor-spar is locally known as ‘purple quartz’.
1818–20E. Thompson Cullen's Nosol. Method. (ed. 3) 326 Purpura; *Purple, or Scorbutic Rash.
1970Daily Tel. 1 Aug. 1/2 ‘A *purple zone’ was not in operation..because the Prince was flying only in the immediate area of Tangmere.
b. In names of species or varieties of animals characterized by a purple or purplish colouring, as purple grackle, purple heron, purple kaleege, purple martin, purple sandpiper, purple sea-anemone, purple urchin, etc.; purple bacterium [ad. G. purpurbacterium (T. W. Engelmann 1888, in Bot. Zeitung 663)], any of a group of bacteria containing a purple photo-active pigment; purple-bird, coot, the purple gallinule of Europe: see porphyrio; purple-bullfinch = purple-finch; purple crow, one of several species of small glossy E. Indian crows, as Corvusenca, C. orru, and C. violacea (Cent. Dict.); purple-egg, a purple sea-urchin, as Arbacia punctulata; purple-emperor, a butterfly: see emperor 4; purple finch, a common American bird, Carpodacus purpureus: see finch 1 b; purple gallinule, (a) the swamp-hen, Porphyrio porphyrio, found in parts of Europe, southern Asia, Africa, and Australasia; cf. porphyrio; (b) a similar North American bird, Porphyrula martinica, which is smaller than the swamp-hen and has yellow legs instead of red ones; purple heron, a heron with greyish-blue plumage, Ardea purpurea, found in central and southern Europe, Africa, and parts of Asia; purple martin, a large North American swallow, Progne subis; purple sandpiper, a small wading bird, Calidris maritima, found in northern parts of Europe, North America, and Asia; purple-shell, (a) = B. 3; (b) an ocean snail of the genus Ianthina; purple water-hen, a water-hen of the genus Porphyrio; purple whelk = B. 3.
1900A. C. Jones tr. Fischer's Structure & Functions of Bacteria 194/2 (Index), *Purple bacteria. 1912W. H. Lang tr. Strasburger's Textbk. Bot. (ed. 4) ii. i. 337 The Purple Bacteria, which develop in water with decomposing organic matter in the absence of oxygen and the presence of light, contain..a green and a red pigment. 1957G. E. Hutchinson Treat. Limnol. I. xiii. 756 The second way in which hydrogen sulfide is oxidized in the hydrosphere is by the photosynthetic green and purple bacteria, of which the purple sulfur bacteria are best known. 1971Berkeley & Campbell in Hawker & Linton Micro-Organisms v. 163 The phototactic behaviour of the purple bacterium Rhodospirillum rubrum..results from a response to lack of light.
1775*Purple Emperor [see emperor n. 4]. 1810Crabbe Borough viii. 78 Above the sovereign oak a sovereign skims, The purple Emp'ror, strong in wing and limbs.
1754Catesby's Nat. Hist. Carol. I. 41 The *Purple Finch. 1876J. Burroughs Winter Sunshine i. 31 Those purple finches..are they not stealing our berries? 1884[see finch 1 b]. 1903S. E. White Forest vii. 91 You will hear..purple finches or some of the pine sparrows warbling high and clear. 1971Islander (Victoria, B.C.) 10 Oct 13/2 Purple finches nest every year in the trees beside our house.
1813A. Wilson Amer. Ornithol. IX. 71 The *Purple Gallinule [was seen] in a thick swamp, a short distance from Savannah, Georgia. 1884H. Seebohm Hist. Brit. Birds II. 562 The Purple Gallinule..is a resident in Algeria, Spain, and Italy. 1888[see gallinule]. 1909W. Verner My Life among Wild Birds in Spain ii. i. 99, I have..been startled by the curious cry of the big Purple Gallinule. 1944Nat. Geogr. Mag. June 694/1 There were Purple Gallinules, decked out in brilliant purple, green, sky-blue, red, and yellow. 1965E. Richardson Living Island 92 [A] purple gallinule also stopped in these road-puddles after a foggy rain.
1782Latham Hist. Birds II. 462 *Purple Grakle. 1886Pall Mall G. 28 Apr. 11/2 Orioles, crows, blackbirds, purple⁓grackles, redwing blackbirds, bobolinks, and terns make very pretty ornaments.
1837Gould Birds Eur. IV. Pl. 274 The food of the Purple *Heron consists of fish, frogs, mice, and insects. 1893Purple heron [see heron 1 b]. 1905Kelsall & Munn Birds Hampshire & Isle of Wight 198 Purple Heron. A very rare accidental visitor from Central and Southern Europe. 1971Country Life 18 Feb. 356/2 The purple heron, once a common sight in the [Ebro] delta, has diminished considerably in recent years.
1743M. Catesby Nat. Hist. Carolina II. p. xxvi, Land-Birds which breed and abide in Carolina in the Summer, and retire in Winter:..The yellow Titmouse. The *purple Martin. The humming Bird. 1808–14[see martin1 1]. 1883Newton in Encycl. Brit. XV. 581/2 The Purple Martin of America, Hirundo or Progne purpurea,..being such a favourite bird in Canada and in the United States. 1939F. C. Lincoln Migration Amer. Birds 55 The Purple Martin is an early migrant. 1976National Observer (U.S.) 29 May 12/2 We carefully watch certain species like the purple martins..and upland sandpipers, which are only now recovering from the 1972 fury of Hurricane Agnes.
1824*Purple sandpiper [see sandpiper 1]. 1828C. L. Bonaparte in Ann. Lyceum Nat. Hist. N.Y. II. 319 The Purple Sandpiper... Inhabits both continents on rocky shores only. 1837Gould Birds Eur. IV. Pl. 334 The Purple Sandpiper. 1860S. F. Baird Birds N. Amer. I. 717 The purple sandpiper..is frequently met with on the shores of the Atlantic. 1925[see injury n. 4]. 1940H. F. Witherby et al. Handbk. Brit. Birds IV. 273 Though probably there is no wader which cannot swim well when necessary, Purple Sandpiper does so more habitually than most. 1978C. Harrison Field Guide Nests N. Amer. Birds 130 Purple Sandpiper... Breeds on the tundra.
1884Standard Nat. Hist. I. 325 Ianthina, *purple shell, with the float supporting the eggs.
1855P. H. Gosse Mar. Zool. i. 61 The *Purple Urchin (E[chinus] lividus) excavates hollows for itself in limestone rock, in which it resides.
1893Newton Dict. Birds 591 The genus Porphyrio, including the bird so named by classical writers, and perhaps a dozen other species often called Sultanas and *Purple Water-hens.
1681Grew Musæum i. vi. i. 129 The *Purple-Wilk with long plated Spikes.
c. As a distinguishing prefix in names of species or varieties of plants having purple flowers, leaves, etc., as purple amaranth, purple beech, purple broomrape, purple camomile, purple cow-wheat, purple gromwell, purple groundsel, purple medick, purple melic, purple mullein, purple ragwort, purple spurge, etc.; † purple apple, the genus Anona; purple bottle, a moss, Splachnum ampullaceum, from the reddish pitcher-shaped apophysis; purple cone-flower, a perennial herb belonging to the genus Echinacea of the family Compositæ, native to North America, and bearing flowers with a dark central disc and purplish rays; purple grass, (a) a garden variety of Trifolium repens: see quot. 1640; (b) Medicago maculata, Heart-clover or Spotted Clover (Deering Catalog. Stirpium 1738); purple lily, (a) = martagon; (b) an Australian genus (Patersonia) of flag-like plants, bearing showy blue or purple flowers; native lily (Miller); purple loosestrife, a large perennial herb, Lythrum salicaria, belonging to the family Lythraceæ, widely distributed in temperate regions, and bearing purple flowers in clusters; purple moor-grass, a perennial grass with purplish panicles, Molinia cærulea, native to Europe and Asia; formerly called blue moor-grass; purple osier, a large shrub, Salix purpurea, belonging to the family Salicaceæ, native to Europe, North Africa, and central Asia, and distinguished by its purplish bark; purple-tassels = purse-tassels (purse n. 11); purple-velvet flower, Love-lies-bleeding (Amaranthus caudatus); purple willow = purple osier; purple-wood = purple-heart, the timber of this; purple-wort, one of various plants of which the flowers, leaves, or stems are purple; as, a dark-leaved variety of Trifolium repens; also, Comarum palustre; purple wreath, a tropical American twining shrub (Petræa volubilis) bearing violet flowers (Treas. Bot.).
1788Lee Bot. App., *Purple apple, Annona.
1866Treas. Bot. 486/2 Ornamental varieties of the common Beech..as..the *Purple Beech, with purple leaves.
1796Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) III. 792 S[plachnum] ampullaceum..*Purple Bottle-moss.
1848A. Gray Man. Bot. Northern U.S. 223 (heading) *Purple cone-flower. 1857[see cone-flower]. 1900L. H. Bailey Cycl. Amer. Hort. II. 511/2 Purple Cone-flower. Four species of North American perennial herbs. 1939Nat. Geogr. Mag. Aug. 220/2 Striking contrast is provided by some of the most brilliant flowers of the prairie notably..the purple coneflower, the butterfly milkweed,.. and the prickly pear. 1954C. J. Hylander Macmillan Wild Flower Bk. 453 The conical receptacle which projects from the center of the Purple Coneflower bears disk-flowers which are purplish in colour. 1974M. C. Davis Near Woods ii. 21 A purple cone flower..essentially is a large central disc and long ribbony rays.
1640Parkinson Theat. Bot. 1112 The *purple grasse spreadeth on the ground, the leaves are in some three in others foure or five on a stalke, of a sad greene colour, with a shadow of darke purple cast over them.
1578Lyte Dodoens ii. xliii. 201 The small *purple Lillie. Ibid. 202 The red purple Lillie..Some call the greatest kinde Martagon.
1548,1633, etc. *Purple loosestrife [see loosestrife 1 b]. 1861R. Bentley Man. Bot. ii. iii. 538 Lythrum Salicaria, Purple Loosestrife, is a common British plant. 1977New Yorker 5 Sept. 23/2 An impenetrable marsh of..purple loosestrife and other plants clogs the length of the channel.
1859L. H. Grindon Manchester Flora 439 *Purple Moor-grass... Everywhere on heaths and moors. 1928M. A. Johnstone Plant Ecol. viii. 93 Where water lodges even very plentifully the dominant grass is the purple moor-grass. 1979R. Grounds Ornamental Grasses viii. 147/1 Purple moor grass... Deservedly one of the most popular garden grasses.
1870J. D. Hooker Student's Flora Brit. Islands 342 S[alix] purpurea... *Purple Osier. 1910E. Step Wayside & Woodland Trees 71 The Purple Osier gets its name from the red or purple bark which clothes the thin but tough twigs. 1958R. D. Meikle Brit. Trees & Shrubs 196 Salix purpurea... Purple Osier. A loose spreading shrub..with slender yellowish or purple-tinged twigs.
1629Parkinson Paradisus 118 Called..the purple faire haired Iacinth..and..of diuers Gentlewomen, *purple tassels.
1578Lyte Dodoens ii. xviii. 168 Called..in English floure Gentill..*Purple veluet floure.
1776W. Withering Bot. Arrangement Veg. Gt. Brit. 602 *Purple Willow. Leaves serrated; smooth; spear-shaped... Banks of rivers. 1838J. C. Loudon Arboretum & Fruticetum Britannicum III. 1490 S[alix] purpurea. The purple Willow. 1914W. J. Bean Trees & Shrubs Hardy in Brit. Isles II. 487 Purple Willow. A shrub with thin, graceful branches forming a loose-habited, spreading bush, 10 to 18 ft. high. 1960Oxf. Bk. Wild Flowers 186/2 Purple Willow is locally common in fens, marshes, and on riverbanks.
1640Parkinson Theatr. Bot. Index 1743 *Purple wort or Purple grasse. 1736Ainsworth Lat. Dict. i. s.v. Purple, Purple wort, Trifolium purpureum.
II. Of the substantive.
3. General combinations: objective or obj. genitive, as purple-dyer, purple-seller, purple-wearer; purple-producing adj.; instrumental, as purple-clad, purple-dusted, purple-dyed, purple-edged, purple-lined, purple-stained, purple-tinged, etc. adjs.; locative, as purple-born adj.; † purple-father, a cardinal: cf. B. 2 c; purple gland, the gland in some gastropods which yields the purple dye.
1831Scott Ct. Rob. xxxiv, The hero of many a victory, achieved, says the *purple-born [Anna Comnena], in..her history, sometimes by his arms and sometimes by his prudence.
1639G. Daniel Ecclus. xxxiii. 45 Heare me, O you *purple-Clad Magistrates, You civill Rulers.
1870Morris Earthly Par. III. iv. 383 The *purple-dusted butterfly.
1581G. Pettie Guazzo's Civ. Conv. iii. (1586) 125 b, Not perceiuing..her owne *purple died face.
1904W. M. Ramsay Lett. to Seven Ch. xxix. 421 The Jews..were organised in trade-guilds, the *purple-dyers, the carpet makers, and perhaps others.
1875Poste Gaius i. com. (ed. 2) 90 The *purple-edged praetexta was generally laid aside by boys along with the bulla aurea..on the first Liberalia,..after the completion of their fourteenth year.
1615R. Brathwait Strappado (1878) 47 A purple sin..Since *purple-fathers oft-times go vnto it.
1888Rolleston & Jackson Anim. Life 483 *Purple gland = hypobranchial gland of Purpura.
1819Keats Lamia ii. 31 The *purple-lined palace of sweet sin.
1549Coverdale, etc. Erasm. Par. Phil. Argt. AA a j, In this citie was also Lydia the *purpleseller.
1819Keats Ode Nightingale ii, With..*purple-stained mouth.
1726Pope Odyss. xix. 275 A mantle *purple-ting'd, and radiant vest.
1880T. Hodgkin Italy & Inv. iii. v. II. 426 The courtiers still contended for the smile of ‘the *Purple-wearer’.
▪ II. purple, v.|ˈpɜːp(ə)l|
[f. purple a.]
1. trans. To make purple; to colour, stain, tinge, or dye with purple. Also fig.
1432–50tr. Higden (Rolls) I. 41 In so moche that y schalle purpulle the mariantes [margines purpurabo] nye the hedes of þe gestes with a dowble ordre of yeres. c1620Z. Boyd Zion's Flowers (1855) 138 Blood did purple ov'r the grasse. 1667Milton P.L. vii. 30 Yet not alone, while thou Visit'st my slumbers Nightly, or when Morn Purples the East. 1783Justamond tr. Raynal's Hist. Indies I. 395 Was it then to be reserved for this ignominy, that we purpled the seas with our blood? 1831J. Wilson Unimore vi. 5 The heather bloom..purples..The Moors and Mountains.
2. intr. To become purple.
1646, etc. [see purpling ppl. a.]. 1816Byron Siege Cor. i, The landmark to the double tide That purpling rolls on either side. 1885M. E. Braddon Wyllard's Weird v, The heather was purpling on the hills. 1893E. H. Barker Wand. Southern Waters 87 It purpled and died away in grayness and mournful shadow.
Hence ˈpurpling vbl. n.
1860Farrar Orig. Lang. 125 The deep purpling of an agitated sea. |