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单词 purple
释义

purpleadj.n.

Brit. /ˈpəːpl/, U.S. /ˈpərp(ə)l/
Forms:

α. Old English purbple (Northumbrian, inflected form), Old English purple (Northumbrian, inflected form), Middle English pupel (probably transmission error), Middle English puppull (probably transmission error), Middle English purpalle (perhaps transmission error), Middle English purpyll, Middle English pvrpyl, Middle English pvrpyll, Middle English–1500s purpil, Middle English–1500s purpill, Middle English–1500s purpul, Middle English–1500s purpull, Middle English–1500s purpulle, Middle English–1500s purpyl, Middle English–1500s purpylle, Middle English–1600s purpel, late Middle English– purple, 1600s purpell; Scottish pre-1700 purpal, pre-1700 purpill, pre-1700 purpule, pre-1700 1700s– purple.

β. late Middle English porpell, late Middle English porpull, late Middle English porpyl, late Middle English porpyll, late Middle English pourpul.

Origin: A variant or alteration of another lexical item. Etymon: purpure n.
Etymology: Alteration of purpure n., with dissimilation of liquid consonants (compare marble n., marble adj.). Compare Middle High German purpul, Swedish purpul (18th cent.).For purpure n. the noun use was original, the adjectival use being later and derivative; but its alteration purple appears first in adjectival use, and is not attested as a noun until the end of the 14th cent. By the end of the 17th cent. purple had supplanted purpure as noun and adjective in all but specialized heraldic use. The adjectival use of purple arose from the Old English noun (purpure n.); the Old English (Northumbrian) purple hrægle (see quot. OE at sense A. 1a) apparently showing, like the purpre reaf of the Hatton Gospels (see quot. c1200 at purpure adj. 1a), a weakened form either of the Old English genitive singular purp(u)ran ‘of purple cloth’, or of the derivative adjective purpuren : see discussion at purpure n. and adj. In sense A. 1a corresponding to classical Latin purpureus (see purpureous adj.), ancient Greek πορϕύρεος (see porphyre n.). With sense A. 3 compare earlier purpurate adj. 2, and also classical Latin purpureus pannus (see purple patch n.).
A. adj.
1.
a. Originally: of a crimson shade obtained from mollusc dye (see sense B. 4), used in various ways as a distinguishing feature of the dress of emperors, senior magistrates, senators, and members of the equestrian class of ancient Rome, and of the imperial family of Byzantium. In later use: of a shade of red similar to this, worn by emperors, kings, cardinals, etc. Now chiefly historical.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > colour > named colours > red or redness > [adjective] > deep red or crimson
blood-redeOE
purpleOE
bloodyOE
purpurine1300
sanguinea1382
tuly1398
crimsonc1400
murreyc1400
purpurec1400
sanguinolentc1450
cramoisy1480
ruby-redc1487
rubya1500
sanguineousc1520
sanguine-coloured1552
blood-coloured1567
rubine1576
purple-red1578
rubied?1594
incarnadine1605
Tyrian?1614
rubiousa1616
murrey-coloured1657
haematine1658
vinaceous1688
carmine1737
claret-coloured1779
ensanguined1785
peony1810
sanguinaceous1816
gory1822
crimsony1830
vinous1834
laky1849
grenat1851
madder1852
wine-dark1855
pigeon's blood1870
poppy crimson1879
claret1882
vinous1894
alizarin1923
wine1950
OE (Northumbrian) Rushw. Gospels: John xix. 5 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].
a1275 St. Margaret (Trin. Cambr.) l. 107 in A. S. M. Clark Seint Maregrete & Body & Soul (Ph.D. diss., Univ. of Michigan) (1972) 34 Ciclatoun ant purpel [a1450 Bodl. purpure] pal scaltou haue to wede.
c1330 (?a1300) Arthour & Merlin (Auch.) (1973) 6657 (MED) Gold and siluer and purpel pelles..þe paiens þer hadden late.
c1390 King of Tars (Vernon) 358 in Englische Studien (1889) 11 42 In cloþ of riche purpel palle.
a1439 J. Lydgate Fall of Princes (Bodl. 263) vi. 123 (MED) Thou hast..Spared [not] ther crownys nor ther purpil weedis, Ther goldene sceptris.
a1500 (?c1440) J. Lydgate Horse, Goose & Sheep (Lansd.) 631 in Minor Poems (1934) ii. 565 His purpil [v.r. purpul] mantil, his garnement roiall.
1560 J. Daus tr. J. Sleidane Commentaries f. clxxijv He consecrated Anthony..Cardinall of Medone, setting vpon his head a purple hatte.
1606 P. Holland tr. Suetonius Twelve Cæsars (1899) I. 49 In his apparel he was noted for singularity, as who used to goe in his Senatours purple studded robe, trimmed with a jagge or frindge at the sleeve hand.
1670 J. Milton Hist. Brit. ii. 87 His Purple Robe he [sc. Alectus] had thrown aside, lest it should descry him.
1755 E. Young Centaur i, in Wks. (1757) IV. 110 As the Jews arrayed our blessed Lord in a purple robe, to mock him.
1791 W. Cowper tr. Homer Odyssey in Iliad & Odyssey II. xxi. 144 Telemachus..Cast off His purple cloak.
1841 R. W. Emerson Ess. 1st Ser. (Boston ed.) vi. 164 I see well that for all his purple cloaks I shall not like him, unless he is at last a poor Greek like me.
1865 S. Evans Brother Fabian's Manuscript 43 They..Laid by the sceptre, and crown, and ball, And the golden robe and the purple pall.
1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 471/2 Alaric..set up a rival emperor and invested the prefect of the city, a Greek named Attalus, with the diadem and the purple robe.
1962 W. G. Hardy Greek & Rom. World 86 The senators, the ruling class, alone had the right to wear a tunic with a broad purple stripe... The second order, the knights..wore a tunic with a narrow purple stripe.
1991 Gazette (Montreal) (Nexis) 14 Nov. a1 In 1953,..Cardinal Leger became one of the youngest ‘princes of the church’, kneeling before Pope Pius XII in Rome to receive the cardinal's purple robe.
b. poetic and rhetorical. Of a person: wearing or entitled to wear this colour; of imperial or royal rank. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social class > nobility > rank > royalty > [adjective] > of imperial or royal rank
purple1635
1635 F. Quarles Emblemes ii. xv. 122 Dogs (far kinder than their purple Master).
1664 H. More Modest Enq. Myst. Iniquity 280 This Head of the Roman Hierarchy with his purple Cardinals are so Emperour-like and of such a Senatorious splendour.
a1704 T. Brown tr. A. Sylvius Death Lucretia in Wks. (1708) III. ii. 87 Shou'd my passive Body be pregnant by the purple Villain.
1753 T. Gray Hymn to Adversity in Six Poems 24 Purple tyrants vainly groan.
1826 W. H. Drummond Bruce's Invasion Ireland 66 'Tis the thunder that shakes purple tyrants with dread.
1896 H. Belloc July in Verse 1954 6 The Purple Kings and all their mounted men..fill the street with clamorous cavalcade.
1946 E. Merriam Family Circle 22 We are the purple prince, haughty and handsome, Loving ourself.
2.
a. Formerly: of any generally red shade; (now) of a deep, rich shade intermediate between crimson and violet (cf. sense B. 2(c)).bluish, dark, dun, red purple, etc.: see the first element.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > colour > named colours > red or redness > [adjective]
redeOE
reodeOE
ruddya1398
reddy?c1400
purple1415
rougea1425
redly1486
gules1503
red-coloured1547
guly1592
blushing1597
angrya1616
rubric1623
minious1646
nacarinea1648
ruddle1649
rubriform1704
carbuncly?1730
blushful1804
envermeiled1822
ablush1852
flammulated1872
pyrrhous1890
the world > matter > colour > named colours > purple or purpleness > [adjective]
purpurine1300
purpurec1400
purple1415
purpurate?c1422
purple-coloured1567
porphyrite1601
purpie1651
purpurean1656
blattean1658
purpureal1708
porphyrous1798
Babylonian1846
1415 Inventory in Archaeologia (1918) 70 93 (MED) Vnum vestimentum simplex de serico puppull [perh. read purpull] lineatum de Tartaryn de eodem colore.
c1425 Bible (Wycliffite, L.V.) (Bodl. 296) Exod. xxv. 4 Purpul [a1425 Royal Ȝe schulen take gold, and siluer, and bras, iacynt and purpur and reed silk].
1436 in F. J. Furnivall Fifty Earliest Eng. Wills (1882) 107 (MED) Y wol that Thomas Rothewell haue myn Prymour & myn purple goune furred with martrons.
a1500 in A. Zettersten Middle Eng. Lapidary (1968) 28 (MED) Þe Amatiste is a purpill colour & shynynge.
1605 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Deuine Weekes & Wks. i. iii. 95 The Violets purple, the sweet Roses stammell.
1696 J. Aubrey Misc., Appar. (1784) 117 This Stranger was in a purple-shag gown.
1747 W. Gould Acct. Eng. Ants 45 A liquid tenacious Humour, in the midst of which is a small Purple or black Consistence, that contains or gives Life to the future Ant.
1792 S. Rogers Pleasures Mem. i. 71 When purple evening tinged the west.
1810 W. Scott Lady of Lake iii. 103 Heath-bell, with her purple bloom.
1879 O. 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..needs the joint action of the red and violet waves, or the red and blue.
1925 J. Conrad Suspense i. i. 3 The open water too had a glassy look with a purple sheen.
1984 S. Steward & S. Garratt Signed Sealed & Delivered vii. 147/1 You can..still enjoy watching your father turning purple with anger over his effeminacy.
2001 Dallas Morning News (Nexis) 21 June c4 A swipe of aluminum chloride at each prick point stopped any bleeding and erased..the purple dot.
b. Chiefly Christian Church. Of this colour as used symbolically at times of penitence and mourning.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > death > obsequies > formal or ceremonial mourning > [adjective] > of mourning colour
purple1466
society > morality > virtue > righteousness or rectitude > reform, amendment, or correction > repentance or contrition > [adjective] > colour symbolizing penitence
purple1466
1466 Inventory in Archaeologia (1887) 50 38 (MED) Item, j nothir purpyll chesebyll for gode fryday.
?1495 J. Lydgate St. Petronilla (Pynson) l. 119 in Minor Poems (1911) i. 158 With purple wede to the heuenly mancyon Hir soule went vp the last day of May.
1542 Inventory in Archaeologia (1887) 50 46 Item a vestement purpull silke for good frydaye.
a1624 Bp. M. Smith Serm. (1632) 146 Robes of scarlet, or purple, for depriments and detriments.
a1739 C. Jarvis tr. M. de Cervantes Don Quixote (1747) III. ii. vi. 236 A venerable old man, clad in a long mourning cloak of purple bays.
1853 Waukesha (Wisconsin) Chronotype 5 Oct. 1/5 We saw the funeral of a young maiden. At the head of the procession was a priest dressed in white and purple robes.
1868 W. B. Marriott Vestiarium Christianum 174 The vestments..oftentimes..are purple, in times of fast, because of our mourning in respect of sin.
1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 234/1 In the Roman Catholic church Advent is still kept as a season of penitence... Purple vestments are worn in the church services.
1987 M. Dorris Yellow Raft in Blue Water (1988) xii. 208 Father Hurlburt came back, dressed this time in his cassock and purple vestments.
2006 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 24 Mar. b5 Black and purple bunting was draped from the Clubhouse as a symbol of mourning.
c. Chiefly poetic. Of the colour of blood; bloody, bloodstained (literal and figurative).In quot. 1878 spec. of crimson venous blood (the colour of arterial blood being scarlet).
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > vascular system > blood > [adjective] > red
redOE
purple1590
florid1638
red-blooded1794
laky1898
the world > physical sensation > cleanness and dirtiness > dirtiness > dirt > soiled condition > [adjective] > stained > stained or smeared with blood
redOE
bloodyOE
drearyOE
weta1300
bloodedc1300
bleedingc1305
forbled1387
gory?a1500
cruent1524
purpled1561
brued1563
beweltered1565
bloodied1566
beblubbered1582
purple1590
bloodstained1594
ensanguined1628
blood-bedabbled1629
cruentous1648
cruentate1661
begored1683
sanguined1700
bluggy1876
1590 E. Spenser Faerie Queene ii. vi. sig. R6 A large purple stream adown their giambeux falles.
1595 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 3 v. vi. 64 See how my sword weepes for the poore kings death. Now maie such purple teares be alwaies shed, For such as seeke the downefall of our house.
1605 1st Pt. Jeronimo sig. Diiv And by that slaue this purple act was done.
1653 Duchess of Newcastle Poems & Fancies 185 [His] blood run warm, and trickling down his side, That where he stood, the grasse was purple dy'd.
1713 A. Pope Windsor-Forest 18 There purple Vengeance bath'd in Gore retires.
1768 T. Gray Triumphs of Owen in Poems 104 Where he points his purple spear, Hasty, hasty Rout is there.
1805 W. Scott Lay of Last Minstrel i. x. 15 When Mathouse burn to Melrose ran, All purple with their blood.
1820 J. Keats Eve of St. Agnes in Lamia & Other Poems 91 A thought came like a full-blown rose, Flushing his brow, and in his pained heart Made purple riot.
1878 M. Foster Text Bk. Physiol. (ed. 2) ii. ii. §3. 267 Venous blood of a dark purple or maroon colour.
1904 R. Brooke Pyramids in Poet. Wks. (1970) 191 So wind the nations in long pageant by, Over a pathway..Foul-stain'd and purple with the blood that's shed..For dreams of ‘Empire’.
3. figurative. Characterized by richness or abundance; splendid, glorious; (of emotion) deeply felt or extravagantly expressed; (of literary composition) elaborate, excessively ornate (see purple passage n., purple prose n. at Compounds 1b(c), and purple patch n. 1).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > goodness and badness > quality of being good > excellence > [adjective] > and splendid
wlonkOE
clear1362
wlonkfulc1400
royalc1425
imperial?1435
magnificousa1474
splendidious?a1475
triumphant1494
glorious1622
aureate1625
candid1648
splendid1653
magnifico1654
magnificent1664
dazzling1749
splendiferous1827
angeliferous1837
million-dollar1854
purple1894
colossal1895
(like) a million dollars (also bucks)1911
swell1926
society > morality > moral evil > wickedness > [adjective] > extremely wicked > specifically of actions or qualities
strong?c1225
grievousa1300
flagitious1550
grossful1613
scarleta1643
atrocious1669
atrocea1734
purple1905
society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > ornateness > [adjective]
overwrittenOE
flourished1303
orne?a1425
ornatea1450
purpuratec1475
gallant1484
flourishinga1552
gorgeous1561
coloured1571
flowerya1616
ornated1630
flosculent1646
luscious1651
chromatic1652
romantic1653
gaudy1655
florid1656
blooming1685
bloomy1685
dressy1713
colouring1807
colorific1812
emblazoned1813
embroidered1868
purple1941
1598 Queen Elizabeth I tr. Horace De Arte Poetica in Queen Elizabeth's Englishings (1899) 142 Oft to beginnings graue and shewes of great is sowed A purple [L. purpureus] pace, one or more for vewe.
1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Pastorals ii, in tr. Virgil Wks. 8 All the Glories of the Purple Spring.
1748 T. Gray Ode in R. Dodsley Coll. Poems II. 265 The rosy-bosom'd hours..wake the purple year!
1848 C. Dickens Dombey & Son li. 510 Although this is but a dry reply to the Major's purple enthusiasm, the Major receives it graciously.
1872 J. S. Blackie Lays of Highlands Introd. 51 Places once flaunting with purple prosperity.
1894 Pall Mall Gaz. 20 Dec. 3/2 Who should I see..having a purple time of it but Padishah and Potter.
1905 Daily Chron. 19 May 6/3 You had one purple moment in your life—a sackful of coins, and scrambling them among boys.
1941 W. H. Auden New Year Let. ii. 37 And yet to show complete conviction, Requires the purpler kinds of diction.
1975 C. N. Manlove Mod. Fantasy iii. 78 One [style] is ‘purple’ and highly emotive.
1990 N.Y. Times 22 Apr. 26/4 I have a purple passion for it [sc. my work].
4. U.S. Politics. Designating a state in which the Republican and Democratic parties have similar levels of support among voters; of or relating to such a state; (hence) politically moderate or centrist. Frequently in purple state. Cf. blue state n., red state n. 2.
ΚΠ
2002 CNN (transcript of TV programme) (Nexis) 20 May In the 2000 election year of red states or blue, Florida was purple. It is up for grabs, in play, a toss-up state, ergo a high traffic area for politicians.
2003 Star-Tribune (Minneapolis) 9 Feb. aa2/3 Moderates locally and nationally are searching for a new purple agenda.
2004 Associated Press Newswire (Nexis) 2 Feb. I don't think it's a red or blue state... I think it's a purple state.
2008 W. Frey in R. Teixeira Red, Blue & Purple Amer. iii. 105 Political analysts should not lose their focus on still powerful, slow-growing purple states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Missouri.
2011 O. J. Rodriguez Vote Thieves 120 The middle-of-the-road ‘purple’ voter typically has only an extreme choice—either scarlet red or indigo blue.
B. n.
1.
a. Purple cloth or clothing, esp. regarded as a luxury or form of ostentation; a purple robe or garment; = purpure n. purple and pall = purpure and pall at purpure n. 1 (now archaic and poetic).
ΘΚΠ
the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > [noun] > of specific colour
purpureeOE
blackc1225
greyc1225
white?c1225
greena1250
yellow1368
violet1380
purplec1390
blue1480
colours1641
tawnies1809
butternut1810
subfusc1853
solid1883
Lovat1908
jungle green1946
c1390 in F. J. Furnivall Minor Poems Vernon MS (1901) ii. 689 (MED) I-put he [sc. Job] was in pore array, Nouþer in purpul ne in pal, But in symple wede.
a1450 St. Katherine (Richardson 44) (1884) 17 (MED) When þey entred yn, there come aȝenst hem..þe company of martirs clothed alle in purpul wyth reed roses vppon here hedes.
a1500 (a1460) Towneley Plays (1897–1973) 94 (MED) All wroght thay sylk to fynd them on; Marie wroght purpyll, the oder none bot othere colers sere.
1526 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfection iii. sig. eii The ryche Glotton..whiche was clothed in Purpull and clothe of Reynes.
1579 E. Spenser Shepheardes Cal. July 173 Yclad in purple and pall.
1648 Bp. J. Hall Select Thoughts 50 The rich glutton..clothed in purple, and byss.
1682 J. Bunyan Greatness of Soul in Wks. (1853) I. 136 He could tend to do nothing but to find out how to be clothed in purple and fine-linen.
1765 J. Otis Vindic. Brit. Colonies 12 His less faithful and less loyal fellow-servant is well fed, plump, gay, and cloathed in purple & scarlet & fine linnen.
1792 C. Smith Desmond II. 124 His very servants cloathed in purple and fine linen, and testifying, by their looks, they fare sumptuously every day.
1850 ‘S. Yendys’ Roman i. 6 She wraps the purple round her outraged breast.
1894 W. E. Gladstone tr. Horace Odes ii. xviii No well-born maidens, my poor doors within, Laconian purples spin.
1931 J. Buchan Blanket of Dark (1933) x. 221 He asked no reward. He did not seek..purple and fine linen.
1957 K. Rexroth Coll. Longer Poems (1968) 31 The leper king lies in a bed all Covered with purple and pall.
1965 Aberdeen Univ. Rev. Autumn 70 No ceremony is complete without the presence of the sacrist (or sacrists) robed in purple, with a tricorne hat trimmed with gold upon his head.
1994 Sports Illustr. 25 Apr. 28/2 Moon is the first marquee quarterback in purple since Fran Tarkenton retired in 1979.
b. spec. Purple or purple-trimmed clothing as the distinguishing dress of emperors, kings, etc. (see sense A. 1a). Also figurative, esp. with the: imperial or royal rank, power, or office. Also: purple clothing as worn for imperial and royal mourning (cf. sense A. 2b).
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social class > nobility > rank > royalty > [noun]
majestyc1375
royaltyc1405
rialc1440
royalness?1548
purple1610
c1425 J. Lydgate Troyyes Bk. (Augustus A.iv) v. 2527 (MED) Pirrus..gan anon to araie hym newe, Al in purpil, whiche, as clerkes telles, Is for kynges & for no wyȝt elles.
1553 R. Eden in tr. S. Münster Treat. Newe India Ded. sig. aaijv No lesse confoundinge the order of thinges, then he whiche cloteth an ape in purple, & a king in sackecloth.
1610 P. Holland tr. W. Camden Brit. i. 271 Constantine..laid aside the purple and..became a Priest.
1698 J. Crowne Caligula ii. 16 Princes are slaves in purple, slaves in grain.
1728 E. Chambers Cycl. at Mourning The antient Spartan and Roman Ladies mourn'd in White;..Kings and cardinals mourn in Purple.
1776 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall I. xiv. 400 As soon as Diocletian and Maximian had resigned the purple.
1818 W. Hazlitt Polit. Ess. 327 The line of distinction which separates the regal purple from the slabbering-bib, is sometimes fine indeed.
1865 Mountain Democrat (Placerville, Calif.) 2 Dec. 1/3 The emperor was on his throne,..sceptre in hand, a crown on his head, and robed in imperial purple.
1903 ‘M. Field’ Julia Domna iii. p. xli (stage direct.) Caracalla throws open the door. He wears the purple & a crown of gold rays.
1960 A. Duggan Family Favourites vii. 126 Eutychianus found the Emperor an apt pupil, because he was teaching him real things, things which would help him to hold the Purple.
1970 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 28 Sept. 7/4 Rural India returned to the purple with a bang in the 1967 general elections. A prince on a platform meant thousands of votes.
2004 S. J. Leinbach tr. F. Meijer Emperors don't die in Bed vii. 124 In the last weeks of his life Constantine no longer wore the imperial purple and the diadem, but went about in the white garment of the ‘newborn’.
c. With the. The official scarlet dress of a cardinal; (figurative) the rank, state, or office of a cardinal, the cardinalate.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > church government > member of the clergy > clerical superior > cardinal > [noun] > office of
cardinalship?a1425
cardinality1514
red hat1522
cardinalate1601
purple1670
cardinalric1688
1670 G. Havers tr. G. Leti Il Cardinalismo di Santa Chiesa iii. iii. 304 Without Bribery, or Subornation, he had attain'd to the dignity of the Purple.
1695 London 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.
1753 S. Richardson Hist. Sir Charles Grandison VI. iv. 12 Celibacy in the Clergy is an indispensable law of your church: Yet a Cardinal has been allowed to lay down the purple, and marry.
1783 W. Thomson in R. Watson & W. Thomson Hist. Reign Philip III vi. 414 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.
1818 Gentleman's Mag. 88 227 The Pope..sent him to the Court of Spain, during which Nunciature he was promoted to the purple.
1898 L. Villari tr. P. Villari Life & Times Machiavelli (new ed.) II. vi. 237 He was raised to the purple.
1913 W. Ward Life Cardinal Newman (ed. 3) I. iii. 102 The death of Leo XII. prevented his elevation to the purple.
1949 Dixon (Illinois) Evening Tel. 8 Feb. 8/4 Prosecutor Elapi said Cardinal Mindszenty..had committed ‘horrible crimes’ regardless of whether he wore ‘the purple of a cardinal or is clad in rags’.
1992 Guardian (Nexis) 11 Apr. ii. 24 A Cardinal..presented himself to the magnificent panoply of his peers to be welcomed and blessed and chanted and enrobed into the purple.
d. born to (also in) (the) purple: born into an imperial or royal reigning family. Also in extended use.Often associated with sense B. 1b; but cf. also quot. 1788 and porphyrogenite n.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social class > nobility > rank > royalty > [adjective] > royally born
kinelyeOE
kine-bornOE
purpurate1669
king-born1670
born to (also in) (the) purple1681
porphyrogenea1849
throne-born1855
porphyry-borna1940
society > society and the community > social class > nobility > rank > royalty > [phrase] > born after father's accession
born to (also in) (the) purple1681
1681 tr. E. Scholasticus Epiphaniensis Eccl. Hist. vi. xxiv. 526/2 (note) The most noble Theodosius was born in purple on the third year of Mauricius's Empire.
1703 D. Williamson Serm. preached Edinb. 54 I cannot but lament the unhappy fate of the Princes who are born in purple, and bred in Luxury.
1788 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall (1790) IX. xlviii. 57 In the Greek language purple and porphyry are the same word:..an apartment of the Byzantine palace was lined with porphyry: it was reserved for the use of the pregnant empresses: and the royal birth of their children was expressed by the appellation of porphyrogenite, or born in the purple.
1827 H. Hallam Constit. Hist. Eng. II. x. 125 [Richard Cromwell] would probably have reigned as well as most of those who are born in the purple.
1884 Labouchere in Fortn. Rev. Feb. 208 True Liberals who have not had the good fortune to be born in the Whig purple.
1937 O. St. J. Gogarty As I was going down Sackville St. (1989) 239 I was not born to the purple.
1963 F. C. Crews Pooh Perplex 104 No doubt when you have been born to the purple and never had to do a day's honest work, you prefer worshipping frivolousness to facing the eternal moral questions.
1994 New Yorker 19 Sept. 40/3 The hero, a young lion named Simba, is born to the purple.
2. Any of various colours ranging in shade between red and violet. (a) A shade of crimson, spec. (also Tyrian purple) the colour of a dye obtained from various gastropod molluscs (cf. senses B. 4, B. 5) and traditionally used for fabric worn by people of imperial or royal rank (cf. sense A. 1a) (now historical). (b) Formerly: †any of various shades of red; cf. purpure n. 2 (obsolete). (c) Now: a colour obtained by mixing red and blue in various proportions, and usually containing also some black or white, or both; esp. a deep rich shade between crimson and violet.The various tints are frequently distinguished by the names of flowers, fruits, etc., in which they occur, as aubergine, pansy, plum-purple; also by special names, as carmine-, pontiff, royal purple, etc.: see the first element.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > colour > named colours > purple or purpleness > [noun]
purple?a1439
colour-de-roy1531
roy1549
mercury1562
purpleness1852
a1439 J. Lydgate Fall of Princes (Bodl. 263) i. 5773 (MED) Adonydes..lay slayn..Whom Venus turned to a ful fressh flour Which was as blood, lich purpil off colour.
a1475 (a1447) O. Bokenham Mappula Angliae in Englische Studien (1887) 10 8 (MED) Muskellis, wherein be fovndene noble margarites of alle-maner colovres, as red, purpulle, Jacinctyne, & prassyne.
1535 Bible (Coverdale) Song of Sol. vii. 5 The hayre of thy heade is like the kynges purple folden vp in plates [R.V. tresses].
a1586 Sir P. Sidney Arcadia (1593) v. sig. Qq3 Not that purple which we now haue..but of the right Tyrian purple, which was neerest to a cullour betwixt our murrey and skarlet.
a1649 W. Drummond Wks. (1711) 131 As the Rose, at the fair appearing of the Morning Sun, displayeth and spreadeth her Purples.
1673 M. Lister Let. 25 Oct. in H. Oldenburg Corr. (1975) X. X. 304 The parenchymous juices of ye Roots of red Carrots & Beets, are of as deep a Purple as those contained within ye Parenchyma of ye berries of ligustrum.
1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Æneis v, in tr. Virgil Wks. 337 The Victor honour'd with a nobler Vest: Where Gold and Purple strive in equal Rows.
1720 J. Ozell et al. tr. R. A. de Vertot Hist. Revol. Rom. Republic I. vii. 422 The first Prætor of Rome..was allowed the Prætexta, or Robe edged with Purple.
1774 O. Goldsmith Hist. Earth V. 347 Their plumage is glossed with a rich purple.
1815 Ld. Byron Destr. Sennacherib i His cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold.
1873 ‘S. Coolidge’ What Katy did at School xiii. 275 Painted in soft purples and grays.
1927 V. Woolf To Lighthouse i. xvii. 163 Her eyes had been going in and out among the curves and shadows of the fruit, among the rich purples of the lowland grapes.
1950 Cape Argus 5 Aug. 7/5 Vygies or sour figs..blossom in a wide range of colours—scarlet, blue, purple, pink or flaming yellow.
1992 Gibbons Stamp Monthly Mar. 61/1 The colour was officially announced as royal purple but is called simply purple in the Gibbons' catalogues.
3.
a. Medicine. Any dark red or purplish lesion of the skin. Obsolete. rare after 15th cent.
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the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > eruption > [noun] > spot of > purple spot
purple1440
Promptorium Parvulorum (Harl. 221) 417 Purplys [?a1475 Winch. Purplus], sorys, morbuli purpurei dicuntur.
?c1475 Catholicon Anglicum (BL Add. 15562) f. 100v A Pvrpyll, pabula [1483 BL Add. 89074 papula].
c1490 in Notes & Queries (1878) 9 343 (MED) Yf yt [sc. the potion] be drokyn be-fore eny pvrpyl a-pere, By þe grase of god ther schall be no perell of no dethe.
1755 S. Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang. Purples (without a singular) spots of a livid red, which break out in malignant fevers.
1899 Lancet 7 Feb. 305/1 He believed that it had been the cause of much of the mortality previously ascribed to gaol fever and ‘malignant fever with purples’.
b. Medicine. In †singular and plural. Any of various diseases characterized by a dark red or purplish rash (in later use, esp. by a petechial rash). Cf. purpura n. 2, purple fever n. Now historical.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of visible parts > eruptive diseases > [noun] > purpura
purple?1515
purple fever1623
purpura1753
purpura haemorrhagica1808
peliosis1839
peliosis rheumatica1857
Henoch's purpura1889
?1515 Hyckescorner (de Worde) sig. B.iijv God punyssheth..with grete sekenesse As pockes pestylence, purple and axes.
?1537 T. Elyot Castell of Helthe iv. vi*. f. 79 Whan they [sc. children] waxe elder, thanne be they greeued with..purpyls, measels, and smalle pockes.
1638 R. Baker tr. J. L. G. de Balzac New Epist. II. 194 I am glad at heart to heare the Duke of Feria is dead of the Purples.
1660 A. Wood Life & Times (1891) I. 349 It is thought it is the spotted feaver or purples.
1730 T. Fuller Exanthematologia ii. 377 Upon the Purples appearing the Doctor gave..some Alexipharmacs... They all recovered.
1772 J. Gough tr. J. M. B. de la M. Guyon Life Lady Guion II. 33 My daughter had the small-pox and the purples.
1866 A. Flint Treat. Princ. Med. 857 The term purpura, or the purples, denotes an affection characterized by a truly petechial eruption, or petechiæ.
1906 Man 6 186 [To treat] Purples.—Remove the skin of a tender red coconut and insert in it a pill.
1973 T. Pynchon Gravity's Rainbow i. 115 She..lives nearby at the home of a Mrs. Quoad, a lady widowed long ago and since suffering a series of antiquated diseases—greensickness, tetter, kibes, purples, imposthumes.
c. Agriculture. In plural. A disease of wheat caused by the nematode Anguina tritici and characterized by small galls on the grains; ear-cockle. Also: a gall characteristic of this disease. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > disease or injury > [noun] > type of disease > caused by insects > associated with crop or food plants
cockle1777
ear cockle1777
raddleman1798
purple1807
yellows1808
sedging1820
gout1828
sedge-root1837
leaf blister1858
tulip-root1875
root-knot1888
1807 A. Young Gen. View Agric. Essex I. vii. iv. 302 Purples..a distemper in wheat which I had never before heard of.
1890 E. A. Ormerod Man. Injurious Insects (ed. 2) 104 ‘Cockle-galls’, or ‘Purples’, are the small roundish or distorted growths, sometimes found in Wheat which give an appearance to the ear much as if purplish or dark coloured peppercorns had taken the place of Wheat grains.
1926 F. D. Heald Man. Plant Dis. xxviii. 833 Nematode disease of wheat... In England it is commonly called ‘purples’, because of the color of the galls and also ‘false ergot’.
d. Veterinary Medicine. In plural. Swine fever; (perhaps also) swine erysipelas. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > animal disease or disorder > disorders of pigs > [noun]
swine-sought?c1475
water-gall1582
measles1587
swinepox1587
gargarism1607
measlesa1637
rangen1688
milt-pain1704
choler1729
hog pox1730
gall1736
thirst1736
cholera1837
black tooth1851
hog plague1858
swine plague1863
purple1867
swine fever1877
soldier disease1878
soldier1882
swine erysipelas1887
Aujeszky's disease1906
swine flu1919
swine influenza1920
African swine fever1935
baby pig disease1941
swine vesicular disease1972
SVD1973
1867 Lancet 13 July 39/1 For the past eighteen months ‘purples’ has been very rife among pigs... I think there is much resemblance between this disease and human purple fever.
1887 Times 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.].
1905 Lancet 6 May 1214/1 During the period of this epidemic a somewhat similar disease called ‘purples’ was said to have been rife amongst pigs.
1967 H. Hill & E. Dodsworth Food Inspection Notes (ed. 7) 40 Swine Fever. Known as ‘Red Soldier’ ‘Purples’, or ‘Hog Typhoid’.
4. A purple dye or pigment; spec. (also Tyrian purple) a crimson dye obtained from the hypobranchial gland of various gastropod molluscs found in the Mediterranean (cf. sense B. 5), the principal coloured component of which is dibromoindigo (now historical). Frequently with distinguishing word denoting the source, composition, inventor, etc. aniline, London, mineral, Perkin's, sea, visual purple, etc.: see the first element. purple of Cassius n. [ < the name of Andreas Cassius (d. 1673), German physician and chemist] a purple pigment consisting of a colloidal mixture of metallic gold and tin( iv) oxide.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > colour > named colours > purple or purpleness > purple dye or pigment > [noun]
turnsole1375
cork1483
jarecork1483
orchil1483
purple1519
purpurisse1519
archil1551
waycoriant1658
orchilla1703
cudbear1772
purple lake1785
imperial purple1788
mauve?1796
phenicin1823
French purple1830
indigo-purple1838
mauve1859
Perkin's mauve1859
violine1859
mauveine1863
purple of Cassiusc1865
tyroline1867
Paris violet1868
Hofmann violet1869
methyl violet1873
punicin1879
crystal violet1885
chrome violet1892
mineral violet1913
Monastral1936
manganese purple1937
the world > matter > colour > named colours > red or redness > red colouring matter > [noun] > dyes and dyestuffs > crimson from murex
purple1519
sea-purple1855
murexa1897
1519 W. Horman Vulgaria viii. f. 81v Scryueners write with blacke, redde, purple, gren blewe or byce.
1596 J. Davies Orchestra sig. C2 The bashfull bride, Which blusheth like the Indian Iuorie Which is with dip of Tyrian purple died.
1656 A. Cowley Davideis iii. 112 in Poems The Purple of the Ancients was taken out of a kind of Shell-fish called Purpura.
1686 W. Cole (title) Purpura Anglicana, being a Discovery of a Shell-fish Found on the Shores of the Severn, in which there is a Vein containing a Juice, giving the delicate and durable Tincture of the Antient, Rich, Tyrian Purple.
1705 tr. Whole Art of Dying 188 The less of these ingredients is used, the blewer and darker will the Dye be the same may be said of Grey Purples and Violets.
1782 W. Nicholson Introd. Nat. Philos. II. 224 A beautiful purple powder, called the purple powder of Cassius, which is of use in enamels.]
1803 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 93 312 By recent muriate of tin we have, with a solution of gold, the well known purple of Cassius.
1815 J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 751 Deep Prussian blue and lake..form a purple of the next degree of excellence.
1880 Academy 20 Nov. 368/3 Carminic acid and Tyrian purple.
1963 J. Osborne Dental Mech. (ed. 5) xxii. 412Purple of Cassius’ is used to produce the pink gum colour.
1992 Chem. in Brit. 28 341/3 Heating magenta dyestuffs..could give new dyes—such as the phenylated rosanilines, Regina purple..and Bleu de Lyons.
5. Any of several Mediterranean gastropod molluscs of the families Muricidae and Thaididae which yielded the dye Tyrian purple (cf. sense B. 4). Also: any of various other molluscs belonging (esp. formerly) to the genus Purpura (family Thaididae); esp. the common dog whelk, Nucella lapillus. Cf. purpura n. 1.The Tyrian dye is believed to have been obtained mainly from Bolinus (or Murex) brandaris, but a number of other species were also used.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > subkingdom Metazoa > grade Triploblastica or Coelomata > class Gastropoda > [noun] > superorder Branchifera > order Prosobranchiata > section Siphonostomata > family Thaididae > member of genus Purpura (purple)
purpure?a1425
purple1580
purple-fish1591
purple whelk1681
1580 C. Hollyband Treasurie French Tong Pourpre,..a shell fish called a Purple.
1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World I. 306 Purples also be caught by means of some stinking bait.
1682 T. Creech tr. Lucretius De natura rerum vi. 215 The Purple's blood gives Wool so deep a stain That we can never wash it out again.
1715 tr. G. Panciroli Hist. Memorable Things Lost I. i. i. 5 The Tyrians, by taking away the Shells of the greater Purples, do come at that noble Juice.
1755 Gentleman's Mag. Jan. 32/2 It belongs to yet another tribe, and is a Purple.
1856 P. H. Gosse Tenby vi. 66 The central part..is the pasture-ground of the Purples (Purpura lapillus), whose massive white shells may be seen stuck over the Mussels and Barnacles.
1901 E. Step 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.
1990 Biblical Archaeologist 53 99/3 Dyeings made solely with sea purples are called conchylia by Pliny.
6. Chiefly poetic. A purple flower. Now rare.Recorded earliest in long purples n. at long adj.1 and n.1 Compounds 4c.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular cultivated or ornamental plants > particular flower or plant esteemed for flower > [noun] > names applied to various flowers
heliotropec1000
flower jaunette1423
helichrysum1551
sunflower1562
Armeria1578
hyacinth1578
pimpernel1578
vaccin1589
heliochryse1593
purple1604
sunflower1622
mayflower1626
starflower1629
bluebottle1648
pink1731
trumpet-flower1732
fly-wort1753
witches' thimbles1820
honey plant1824
black-eyed Susan1836
shell-flower1845
pincushion1847
pincushion flower1856
nightingale1862
garland-flower1866
paper-white1880
1604 W. Shakespeare Hamlet iv. vii. 141 Therewith fantastique garlands did she make Of Crowflowers, Nettles, Daises, and long Purples.
1702 Elysium 131 There is Floras Ward-robe that Cloaths all the Subjects of her gay and green Dominion, the Flowers, Purples, Violets, Lillies, Daffodilles..[etc.].
1840 R. Browning Sordello v. 295 Plucking purples in Goito's moss.
1905 Academy 18 Nov. 1198/1 I took his bunch of purples, and I charmed his heart away.
7. poetic. Blood. Cf. sense A. 2c. Obsolete.In quot. a1631 also with implication of sense B. 1b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > vascular system > blood > [noun]
bloodeOE
vermeil1590
claret1604
purplea1631
ichor1638
whole blood1829
ruby1849
a1631 J. Donne Hymne to God in Poems (1635) 388 May the last Adams blood my soule embrace. So, in his purple wrapp'd receive mee Lord.
1804 R. Couper Poetry II. 61 Tibb snyted Madge's muckle nizz, Till out the purple sprang.
8.
a. Sexually explicit writing. Cf. blue n. 11, blueness n. 3. rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > moral or spiritual impurity > indecency > [noun]
inhonesty1481
scandal1622
nastiness1650
fulsomeness1684
indecency1692
impropriety1751
blue1824
paw-pawness1828
blueness1833
gaminess1854
suggestiveness1888
purple1930
1930 D. H. Lawrence A Propos Lady Chatterley's Lover 9 I should show the public that here is a fine novel, apart from all ‘purple’ and all ‘words’.
b. Journalists' slang. to sub the purple: to subedit elaborate or excessively ornate writing. Cf. purple passage n. at Compounds 1b(c). rare.
ΚΠ
1958 E. A. Robertson Justice of Heart iii. 33 A well-known outside contributor from whose copy he had, in his own words, ‘subbed the purple’.
9. slang. (a) = purple heart n. 3. (b) Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), used as a recreational drug; cf. purple haze n. at Compounds 1b(c). Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > use of drugs and poison > an intoxicating drug > [noun] > hallucinogenic drug > LSD
white lightning1907
lysergic acid diethylamide1944
LSD1950
lysergic acid1952
acid1965
lysergide1965
purple haze1967
purple1968
Strawberry Fields1971
the world > physical sensation > use of drugs and poison > an intoxicating drug > [noun] > stimulant drug(s) > specific stimulant drugs
amyl nitrite1881
Methedrine1939
Dexedrine1942
benzylpiperazine1947
dexamphetamine1949
dextro-amphetamine1949
methamphetamine1949
Drinamyl1950
benny1955
dexie1956
purple heart1961
crystal1964
French blue1964
meth1966
speed1967
splash1967
purple1968
crank1969
crystal meth1969
crystal methamphetamine1970
dex1984
ice1989
BZP1997
tik2004
1968 C. 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.
1971 E. E. Landy Underground Dict. 156 Purple, LSD.

Compounds

C1. Compounds of the adjective.
a.
(a) Parasynthetic. Frequently in the names of animals and plants.
purple-backed adj.
ΚΠ
1829 E. Griffith et al. Cuvier's Animal Kingdom VII. 483 Purple-backed Maccaw.
1903 Emu 3 36 Malurus assimilis (Purple-backed Wren)..not uncommon on coast and inland.
1925 W. J. Bryan & M. B. Bryan Mem. William Jennings Bryan ii. iv. 246 This oration we found in an old purple-backed notebook written in a cramped, boyish hand.
2005 Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio) (Nexis) 10 Nov. e15 A phenomenal number of the purple-backed swallows..had drifted far from their summer habitat in Texas and New Mexico.
purple-berried adj.
ΚΠ
1732 Philos. Trans. 1731–2 (Royal Soc.) 37 174 Ligustrum Lauri folio, fructu violaceo. The purple-berried Bay.
1868 M. Collins Sweet Anne Page I. 241 The golden-fruited and purple-berried leafage.
1964 Post Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.) 11 Oct. 24/3 When fences are embroidered with crimson- and purple-berried woodbine and the mountain tops are a haze of leaf color.
2008 J. Kellum Southern Shade 66 (caption) The fruit browns as it ages. This isn't a problem of the native purple-berried species.
purple-coated adj.
ΚΠ
1833 W. G. Simms Bk. my Lady 148 If yon purple-coated cloud wins my eye and kindles my fancy, let me survey it.
1906 Westm. Gaz. 3 July 1/3 The scarlet- or purple-coated seminarists pause for breath.
2006 Sunday Mail (Australia) (Nexis) 29 Jan. 96 They spot him on the road home, walking along with a purple-coated old lady.
purple-crested adj.
ΚΠ
1746 J. Blackstone Specimen Botanicum 51 Purple crested cow-wheat.
1881 O. Wilde Poems 215 White-shielded, purple-crested rode the Mede.
1912 Manitoba Morning Free Press 17 Sept. 18/1 Twenty-five purple-crested Odd Fellows, directed by several red or white-crested officers.
1992 D. Lessing Afr. Laughter 148 Birds swooped about, notably the purple-crested lourie, with its creaking fateful cry.
2005 D. L. Wagner Caterpillars Eastern N. Amer. 47 The sting of the Purple-crested Slug is mild.
purple-crowned adj.
ΚΠ
1829 E. Griffith et al. Cuvier's Animal Kingdom VIII. 90 Purple-crowned Pigeon.
1957 Condor 59 85 Heliothrix barroti. Purple-crowned Fairy. One male with a fairly short tail was collected on August 14.
2003 Wanderlust Apr.–May 58/1 The noisy rainbow and purple-crowned lorikeets..are often spotted dancing about when the eucalyptus flower.
purple-eyed adj.
ΚΠ
1787 Bot. Mag. 1 35 Purple-eyed Succory-Hawkweed... Miller..improperly describes the centre of the flower as black.
1877 Harper's Mag. May 897/2 Pale, pale primroses, and daisies pied, And violets, purple-eyed, that peep between.
2005 Denver Post (Nexis) 31 July l6 Its yellow flowers are purple-eyed. They are all pretty. There really is no such thing as a bad verbascum.
purple-faced adj.
ΚΠ
1771 T. Pennant Synopsis Quadrupeds p. xvi Dog-faced Monky..Lion-tailed..Ouanderou..Purple-faced..White.
1841 C. J. Lever Charles O'Malley lxxxviii A large purple-faced old major.
1958 R. Garnett tr. B. Heuvelmans On Track of Unknown Animals iv. 94 This description probably refers to the purple-faced langur of Ceylon (Kasi vetulus).
2001 Daily Tel. 18 Jan. 28/3 The unlovely former MP threw a purple-faced hissy fit.
purple-flowered adj.
ΚΠ
1629 J. Parkinson Paradisi in Sole 301 This purple flowred Vipers grasse hath long and narrow leaues.
1732 R. Bradley Gentleman & Farmer's Guide (ed. 2) 171 The purple-flowered Kind I suppose are received with the more Pleasure.
1846 D. J. Browne Trees Amer. 22 (heading) Magnolia purpurea, The Purple-Flowered Magnolia.
1992 News (Frederick, Maryland) 27 Oct. a10/1 Seedlings of..yellow-flowered alfalfa grow about as vigorously as most commercial varieties of the far more common purple-flowered alfalfa.
2010 J. Phelan What is Life? vii. 255 Crosses that entailed the fertilization of plants with purple flowers by pollen from other plants with purple flowers produced mostly purple-flowered offspring.
purple-hearted adj.
ΚΠ
1866 S. H. Bradbury Lyrical Fancies 41 Send the purple-hearted June, With its flushed and mellow eves!
1910 Daily Chron. 25 Mar. 6/5 The minute purple-hearted blossoms.
1992 P. Robinson Entertaining Fates vi. 87 The flimsy-petalled, purple-hearted poppies.
2012 F. Dunlop Every Grain Rice (2013) 328/3 This vegetable (Amaranth tricolor)..has thin stems with a profusion of small purple-hearted leaves.
purple-hued adj.
ΚΠ
a1475 ( J. Lydgate Minor Poems (1911) i. 174 This daysye, with leves rede and white, Purpul hewed.
1598 W. Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 1 ii. i. 75 None of these mad mustachio purplehewd maltworms. View more context for this quotation
1866 Galaxy 15 Sept. 136 It was just at the close of a delicious, purple-hued Autumn afternoon that she welcomed Ichabod home.
1906 Jrnl. Royal Anthropol. Inst. 37 208 Their colour is a little more purple-hued than that of the Egyptians.
2006 Boston Globe (Nexis) 12 Apr. e1 A purple-hued puree of red beans and walnuts is enhanced with chopped parsley, mint, and dill.
purple-leaved adj.
ΚΠ
1748 W. Lewis tr. Pharmacopoeia Royal Coll. Physicians Edinb. 39 Labdanum... The gum of the purple-leaved Cretan ladaniferous cistus.
1883 Science 29 June 611/2 The seed of the purple-leaved variety of Berberis vulgaris..reproduced the purple-leaved peculiarity to an extent which it could not do more perfectly if the variety were a true species.
1971 Country Life 17 June 1521/3 The purple-leaved filbert..responds well to stooling.
2001 S. A. Roth Taylor's Guide Trees 273 This small tree [sc. the purple-leaved plum] is one of the most cold-hardy purple-leaved plants available.
purple-lidded adj.
ΚΠ
1869 Temple Bar Oct. 303 One thin hand lifted to shield her weary purple-lidded eyes.
1914 A. Lowell Sword Blades & Poppy Seed 233 The purple-lidded night Westering comes, her footsteps light.
2000 Eastern Courier (Austral.) (Nexis) 14 June 22 The waste company..has admitted that separating the materials in that pretty purple-lidded bin is a joke.
purple-nosed adj.
ΚΠ
1590 W. Clever Flower of Phisicke 93 They are also purple-nosed and hayrie about the breast.
1868 ‘Radical Freelance’ Philosophers of Foufouville ix. 203 ‘That reminds me’, said a lanky, purple-nosed individual, who looked like a 'longshoreman, ‘that I actially see one on 'em myself’.
1913 J. Conrad Chance i. i. 8 He envied the purple-nosed old cab-drivers on the stand.
2002 P. A. Huchthausen October Fury i. 48 A wire that locked the hand plate on the upper front of the purple-nosed torpedo.
purple-skirted adj.
ΚΠ
1832 W. C. Bryant Poems (new ed.) 157 Purple-skirted clouds curtain the crimson air.
1960 W. H. H. Norman tr. A. Ryùonosuke in D. Keene Mod. Japanese Lit. xix. 331 He clutched his purple-skirted knee with both hands.
1993 Chron.-Telegram (Elyria, Ohio) 30 Mar. a4 A Cinderella purple-skirted ballgown with a matching short jacket.
purple-spiked adj.
ΚΠ
1714 Philos. Trans. 1713 (Royal Soc.) 28 205 Purple spiked Willowherb... The flowers purple, and are thickset in long spikes with round pointed Capsules.
1822 S. Clarke Hortus Anglicus II. 260 Purple-spiked Milk Vetch.
1997 Post–Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.) 19 July d2 The herb garden is a visual treat, with purple-spiked meadow sage and gold-leafed oregano.
purple-spotted adj.
ΚΠ
1596 R. Johnson Famous Hist. Seauen Champions x. 90 By that time the purple spotted morning had parted with her gray.
1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory 106 At the tops stand many small single Flowers close set together, which in some are white, others purple spotted in the middle.
1788 J. Woodforde Diary 8 July (1927) III. 36 To Mr. Aldridge for 6 Yards of purple spotted Cotton.
1880 Harper's Mag. June 66 The swamp-cabbage flower..peers above the ground beneath his purple spotted hood.
1952 A. G. L. Hellyer Sanders' Encycl. Gardening (ed. 22) 277 L[ilium]..daliense, white, purple-spotted.
1996 R. Mabey Flora Britannica 291/2 Hemlock's purple-spotted stems often exceed six feet in height.
purple-stemmed adj.
ΚΠ
1878 T. Hardy Return of Native ii. vii, in Belgravia Apr. 268 A dense brake of purple-stemmed brambles had grown to such vast dimensions as almost to form a dell.
1923 Science 30 Nov. 450/1 The injury affected both green-stemmed and purple-stemmed plants.
1995 Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch 23 Aug. f1/4 Plates of salad greens on Vietnamese tables inevitably include rau que, the purple-stemmed licorice variety.
purple-throated adj.
ΚΠ
1825 C. Waterton Wanderings in S. Amer. ii. 114 The little forked-tail purple-throated humming-birds.
1961 O. L. Austin Birds of World 203/2 The smaller 11-inch Purple-throated Fruit-crow ranges from Costa Rica southward through the Amazon region.
2003 Science 25 Apr. 545/3 A bizarre sexual dimorphism occurs in the purple-throated carib hummingbird.
purple-topped adj.
ΚΠ
1759 P. Miller Gardeners Dict. at Turnep The round red or purple topped turnip.
1845 J. W. Ord Rural Sketches & Poems 153 Lovely is the prospect, rich and rare, Wild and subdued,—black heath all purple-topped.
1905 Missouri Bot. Garden Ann. Rep. 122 Humphrey reports it [sc. crucifer mildew] growing on purple topped white turnips.
2005 Boston (Mass.) Mag. (Nexis) Sept. Purple-topped wine caps spring up locally in wood chip piles but don't take well to traditional seasonings.
purple-zoned adj.
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1862 J. G. Whittier in Atlantic Monthly Apr. 423 Purple-zoned, Wachuset laid His head against the West.
1891 Atlantic Monthly May 641 No tongue has any name For the despair I saw enthroned In my love's eyes, all purple-zoned!
2000 Sunday Times (Nexis) 23 Jan. For pots and containers, try the following varieties: ‘Cherry Orbit’ (intense red blooms and purple-zoned foliage); [etc.].
(b) Modifying colour words to form adjectives and nouns.See also purple-red n. and adj.
purple-black n. and adj.
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1610 W. Baldwin et al. in Mirour for Magistrates (new ed.) Induction sig. Civ At length appeared clad in purple blacke Sweete Somnus.
1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory ii. xii. 264/2 The feathers of the upper surface of the Wings are of a shining purple black.
1727 J. G. Scheuchzer tr. E. Kæmpfer Hist. Japan v. 514 A very beautiful sort of an Adiantum..with shining purple black stalks.
1849 Littell's Living Age 21 July 120/2 She had..beautiful silken hair, of that purple black which poets call hyacinthine.
1868 G. MacDonald Robert Falconer II. 44 Purple-black heartseases, and thin-filmed silver pods of honesty.
1925 Jrnl. Amer. Folklore 38 135 A purple-black seed, in appearance very like an ox-heart cherry.
1958 Mansfield (Ohio) News Jrnl. 7 Sept. 28/1 Grapes, in cool greens or juicy purple-blacks..are piled high in brass bowls.
2002 E. A. Gargan River's Tale viii. 258 I watched the slow bruising of the eastern sky, a purple-black swelling on the horizon mushrooming into gray breakers.
purple-blue adj.
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1633 T. Johnson Gerard's Herball (new ed.) ii. 764 The floures stand forked in the tops of the branches like those of dead Nettle, or of Clarie, of a purple blew colour.
1728 R. Bradley Dict. Botanicum at Crocus vernus luteus versicolor alter The three outer Petals are striped..with a paler, Purple-blue, shining Colour.
1845 J. R. Lowell in Harbinger 2 Aug. 122/3 Far away on Katahdin thou towerest, Purple-blue with the distance.
1922 Times 31 July 9/6 Jade green always looks well and allows of purple-blue or peacock trimmings.
2003 Horticulture May–June 62/3 Clematis×durandii with abundant purple-blue flowers thrive in congregations of rustic tuteurs, some as tall as 14 feet.
purple-bronze n.
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1870 One Hundred Years' Progress of U.S. x. 507/2 The glittering iridescence of the insect's wings, or the gold and purple bronze which glistens on its armor.
1958 Van Wert (Ohio) Times-Bull. 14 June 2/3 The stems and veins of the leaves are tinted a purple-bronze.
1992 H. Mitchell One Man's Garden vi. 144 The plant has leaves the size of salad plates borne on stems a foot high or so, and they are oily, glossy green flushed with purple-bronze.
purple-brown adj. and n.
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1693 N. Staphorst tr. L. Rauwolf Trav. Eastern Countries i. ix, in J. Ray Coll. Curious Trav. I. 105 Between them sprout out purple-brown Flowers.
?1735 Pract. Husbandman & Planter II. 146 The purple Brown is the ripest, the bright White coming out of some of the Top Seed-Vessels is next.
1835–6 Todd's Cycl. Anat. & Physiol. I. 553/1 A..layer of a dark purple-brown pigment.
1868 H. Alford Poet. Wks. 350 The gleaming trunks give place in the distance To the rich purple brown of the winter trees in the sunlight.
1932 R. Kipling Limits & Renewals 309 Area by area, she was painted with dazzle-patterns of greenish-yellow and purple-brown.
2003 N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 23 Mar. 26/4 Ayahuasca..is a DMT-rich drug that looks like purple-brown spit.
purple-crimson adj. and n.
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1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World I. 91 Shell fishes that yeeld the purple crimson colour.
1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory ii. vi. 108/2 Wood-earth Nuts, of a purple crimson.
1800 Compl. Young Man's Compan. 431 Lake being of rather a purple crimson, is more transparent than Carmine.
1891 A. Austin Human Trag. (ed. 4) iv. 291 She had but caught From this weird hour the purple-crimson glow.
1955 Chron.-Telegram (Elyria, Ohio) 10 June 10/5 The foliage is a deep purple crimson from spring until fall.
2006 Geelong (Austral.) Advertiser (Nexis) 13 May 49 Youthful purple crimson colour displaying sweet blackberry fruit, pepper and mint spiciness on the nose.
purple-dark adj.
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1864 W. J. Courthope Three Hundredth Anniv. Shakespeare's Birth 14 The green-leaf palace 'neath her sober wing Grows purple-dark.
1928 V. Woolf Orlando vi. 243 The wine-blue purple-dark hill.
1986 O. P. Adisa in S. Brown Caribbean New Wave (1990) 3 He wanted to be purple-dark like the rest of them so his face wouldn't turn red like the colour of sorrel fruit whenever he got angry.
purple-green adj.
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1707 J. Pechey Compl. Herbal (ed. 2) 151/1 It has..Leaves like those of Sweet-Marjoram, but broader and greater, of a purple green Colour.
1858 Agitator (Tioga County, Pa.) 23 Dec. It was quite as bad as Mr. Tittlebat Titmouse's predicament about his purple-green hair.
1940 Proc. Royal Soc. B. 129 235 The stems are purple and leaves purple green.
2005 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 17 Mar. d6/3 Tatsoi, kyona mizuna and Osaka purple, a tangy mustard green with a sturdy purple-green leaf, are a few of the many Asian greens being offered this year.
purple-grey adj.
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1793 J. Leslie tr. Comte de Buffon Nat. Hist. Birds IV. 360 He found that the Purple-gray Cotinga is the young bird, and that it takes at least eighteen months to acquire its full colour.
1879 Bismarck (Dakota Territory) Tribune 30 Aug. The gathering dusk..was falling in a purple-grey vail of tissue over wood and lawn.
1930 J. Dos Passos 42nd Parallel 147 Purplegray murk rose steadily.
1996 G. Ward Hawaii: Rough Guide i. 24 The staple food was poi , a purple-grey paste produced by pounding the root of the taro plant.
purple-pink n. and adj.
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1797 G. Humphreys Museum Calonnianum 23 Cream-coloured ground with circular marbled and dotted bands of purple pink.
1856 ‘G. Eliot’ in J. W. Cross George Eliot's Life (1885) I. vii. 401 The Corallina officinalis..with its purple-pink fronds.
1884 Science 10 Oct. 352/1 The petals were..pale green, edged with purple-pink, in color.
1964 M. 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.
1997 J. Updike Toward End of Time 135 A weeping cherry tree..making its annual splash of purple-pink against the chilly white of a star magnolia.
purple-rose adj. and n.
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1856 W. Gibbs & F. A. Genth in Smithsonian Contrib. Knowl. (1857) 9 v. 19 The crystals exhibit a remarkable dichroism, the ordinary image being of a fine purple rose color, while the extraordinary image is a bright orange red.
1882 Garden 22 July 65/2 Varying in colour from a deep purple-rose to a delicate rose-pink.
1928 S. F. Harrison Later Poems & Villanelles 2 Rhodora's clusters purple-rose in hue.
2006 National Post (Canada) (Nexis) 13 Apr. (Post Homes section) 4 The foliage of this particular variegated variety..changes from marbled bronze-red and pinkish-white to purple-rose in the fall.
purple-yellow n. Obsolete
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1882 Garden 2 Sept. 207/3 Agaricus violaceus, a splendid purple-yellow, growing among dead leaves.
(c) Adverbial.
purple-beaming adj. Obsolete
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1760 F. Fawkes tr. Anacreon Odes in tr. Anacreon Wks. lxiv. 4 Safely shroud Me in a purple-beaming Cloud.
?1760 J. Langhorne Poems Several Occasions 30 While Beauty's Parent gilt the rosy Morn, Play'd on the Stream, or purple-beaming Flower.
purple-dawning adj.
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1715 N. Rowe Lady Jane Gray iv. i. 46 Thus gloomy Ghosts, whene'er the breaking Morn Gives notice of the chearful Sun's Return,..shrink before the Purple-dawning East.
1991 S. Sohmer Patriots in San Francisco Chron. (Nexis) 17 July e4 In the purple dawning light, the mottlings of his years lay on his cheek and brow like coats of tempera.
purple-glowing adj.
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1884 N. F. Davin Eos 11 Comes with shining robes the Morning, Orange-tinted, purple-glowing.
1917 W. M. Salter Nietzsche Thinker xiii. 155 He waits for..astronomers of the ideal who will reveal to us purple-glowing constellations.
1996 Musical Times Nov. 19/2 She ‘inadvertently’ reveals the hidden picture of a sickly emaciated hand clutching an obscure purple-glowing ‘object’.
purple-staining adj.
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1813 W. Bingley Animal Biogr. (ed. 4) III. 465 The purple-staining whelk.
1899 Bot. Gaz. 28 342 The pollen grains at first are quite small, and possess thin purple-staining walls.
1985 Syracuse (N.Y.) Herald-Jrnl. 1 July b15/3 For decades the standard medical treatment for a yeast infection was painting the vagina with gentian violet—a messy, purple-staining medication.
2004 Manila Bull. (Nexis) 1 Apr. He has fruit trees like..duhat tree which always yielded plenty of the bitter-sweet and purple-staining fruit.
purple-streaming adj. Obsolete
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1595 S. Daniel First Fowre Bks. Ciuile Warres ii. cxxii. sig. M2v Her fieldes engrain'd with bloud, her riuers dide With purple streaming wounds of her owne rage.
1622 P. Hannay Nightingale 222 As the ruddy bashfull Morne Did leave Dan Phoebus purple streaming bed,..I to my fairest Coelia's chamber sped.
1727 J. Thomson Summer 19 The Purple-streaming Amethyst is thine.
a1817 F. Sayers Poet. Wks. (1830) 158 O give me oft to view Thy purple-streaming light.
1899 J. Davidson Last Ballad 53 The lickerish crowd agape to dip their mouths In purple-streaming agony.
purple swelling adj. Obsolete
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1617 B. Jonson Vision Delight (1640) II. 19 Favonius, father of the Spring,..Had rowsd him here, and shooke his feathers, wet With purple swelling Nectar.
1791 M. Robinson Poems I. 14 There I'll press from herbs and flow'rs Juices..Whose magic potency can..thro' the purple swelling vein With subtle influence steal.
b.
(a) In names of animals characterized by a purple or purplish colouring.
purpleback n. Obsolete rare the purple-backed thornbill, Ramphomicron microrhynchum, a South American hummingbird the male of which has a purple back and green underparts.
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1887 R. B. Sharpe Gould's Trochilidæ Suppl. Pl. 38 Zodalia Ortoni. Quito Purpleback.
purple bird n. Obsolete = purple swamphen n.
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1735 in E. Albin Nat. Hist. Birds (1738) III. Pl. 84 (caption) Porphyrio. The Purple Bird.
1852 G. Bush Notes Crit. & Pract. Bk. Leviticus 104/1 The Sept[uagint] renders this by πορϕυριωνα, the purple bird, a bird very famous among the ancients for the beauty of its plumage.
purple bullfinch n. Obsolete rare = purple finch n.
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the world > animals > birds > order Passeriformes (singing) > arboreal families > family Fringillidae (finch) > [noun] > subfamily Carduelinae > genus Carpodacus (rose-finch)
purple finch1731
house finch1816
rosefinch1840
purple bullfinch1862
scarlet rosefinch1884
1862 J. Richardson et al. Mus. Nat. Hist.: Zool. 364/2 The Purple Bullfinch (Carpodacus purpureus) is of a deep-crimson colour, with the wings and tail black, and the belly white.
purple coot n. now rare = purple swamphen n.
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1864 T. C. Jerdon Birds India III. 714 The Purple Coot is found throughout all India and Ceylon.
1959 Systematic Zool. 8 18 An essential character..is a single character enabling the species to be recognized by it alone, e.g..., the violet plumage (corpus violaceum) of the purple coot (F. Porphyrio).
purple crow n. Obsolete rare any of several small crows with iridescent plumage found in Indonesia and Australasia.Apparently only attested in dictionaries or glossaries.
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1889 Cent. Dict. at Crow2 n. Purple crow, one of several species or conspecies of small lustrous crows of the East Indies and Papua.
purple egg n. Obsolete rare (also purple egg-urchin) = purple sea urchin n.
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1859 S. G. Goodrich Illustr. Nat. Hist. Animal Kingdom II. 625 There are the various kinds [of sea urchin] called..the Common Egg-Urchin, Echinus sphæra.., the Purple Egg-Urchin, E. lividus, [etc.].
1890 Cent. Dict. Purple-egg, a common sea-urchin, Strongylocentrotus drobachiensis.
purple emperor n. (more fully purple emperor butterfly) a large nymphalid butterfly of deciduous woodland in Eurasia, Apatura iris, the male of which has mainly black wings with purple iridescence.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > Rhopalocera (butterflies) > [noun] > family Nymphalidae > subfamily Ithomiinae > genus Apatura > apatura iris (purple emperor)
purple emperor1742
emperor of the woods?1749
high-flyer?1749
emperor1773
emperor of Morocco1788
emperor butterfly1822
1742 B. Wilkes Twelve New Designs Eng. Butterflies Pl. 6 (caption) The Purple Emperour Butterfly, taken in the Fly State.
1766 M. Harris Aurelian 6 I was confirmed in my Opinion of its being the Purple Emperor, by observing that the square Points of the under Wings projected beyond the rounded Extremity of the upper ones.
1810 G. Crabbe Borough viii. 110 Above the sovereign Oak, a Sovereign skims, The purple Emp'ror, strong in Wing and Limbs.
2000 Wildlife News Jan. 17/2 We took the civil servants and consultants to Bernwood Forest to show them the purple emperor butterflies bombing about.
purple finch n. a common North American finch, Carpodacus purpureus, the male of which has mainly rose-red plumage.
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the world > animals > birds > order Passeriformes (singing) > arboreal families > family Fringillidae (finch) > [noun] > subfamily Carduelinae > genus Carpodacus (rose-finch)
purple finch1731
house finch1816
rosefinch1840
purple bullfinch1862
scarlet rosefinch1884
1731 Philos. Trans. 1729–30 (Royal Soc.) 36 431 Fringilla purpurea, the purple Finch.
1876 J. Burroughs Winter Sunshine i. 31 Those purple finches..are they not stealing our berries?
2000 Independent 24 Jan. i. 1/1 Outside the window, purple finches..and bright red cardinals peck at the seed he has set out.
purple gallinule n. (a) = purple swamphen n.; (b) (also American purple gallinule) a similar but smaller North American rail, Porphyrio (or Porphyrula, or Gallinula) martinica, with more iridescent plumage and yellow legs.
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the world > animals > birds > order Gruiformes > [noun] > family Rallidae (rail)
water henc1520
railbird1574
purple gallinule1782
rail1792
water cock1864
the world > animals > birds > order Gruiformes > [noun] > family Rallidae (rail) > porphyrio porphyrio (swamp hen)
porphyrioa1425
purple gallinule1782
purple water-hen1790
pukeko1835
sultana1837
swamp hen1848
1782 T. Martyn Heads of Course of Lect. Nat. Hist. 12 (table) Gallinule. [Species:] Common. Purple.
1814 A. Wilson & G. Ord Amer. Ornithol. IX. 71 The Purple Gallinule [was seen] in a thick swamp, a short distance from Savannah, Georgia.
1888 Riverside Nat. Hist. IV. 131 The purple-gallinules..typified by the European species (Porphyrio porphyrio) and the American Ionornis martinica.
1909 W. Verner My Life among Wild Birds in Spain ii. i. 99 I have..been startled by the curious cry of the big Purple Gallinule.
1960 in Brit. Birds 53 147 (title) The American Purple Gallinule breeds in the southern and south-eastern United States.
purple grackle n. a North American grackle (family Icteridae), the male of which has glossy purplish plumage on the head, now regarded as a common grackle of the nominate subspecies Quiscalus quiscula quiscula.
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1782 J. Latham Gen. Synopsis Birds I. 462 Purple Grakle.
1811 A. Wilson Amer. Ornithol. IV. 30 The Red-winged Starlings..are..sometimes associated with the Purple Grakles.
1999 Field Guide Birds N. Amer. (National Geographic Soc.) (ed. 3) 438 Smaller ‘Purple Grackle’, quiscula of the southeast, has a narrow bill, purple head, bottle green back, and blue tail.
purple heron n. a large, slender Old World heron, Ardea purpurea, which has a reddish-buff head and neck and reddish-purple underparts.
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the world > animals > birds > freshwater birds > order Ciconiiformes (storks, etc.) > [noun] > family Ardeidae (herons and bitterns) > genus Ardea (heron) > miscellaneous types of
blue heron1565
white heron1575
blue heron1731
squacco1752
frog-catcher1782
purple heron1785
great blue1838
Goliath1860
1785 J. Latham Gen. Synopsis Birds III. i. 96 Purple H[eron]... Size of the common H[eron].
1837 J. Gould Birds Europe IV. Pl. 274 The food of the Purple Heron consists of fish, frogs, mice, and insects.
1995 New Scientist 2 Dec. 52/1 A purple heron is a splash of colour and grace on the edge of a marsh.
purple martin n. a large North American martin, Progne subis (the male of which has dark, glossy purplish-blue plumage) which is now dependant on artificial accommodation for nesting.
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the world > animals > birds > order Passeriformes (singing) > non-arboreal (larks, etc.) > [noun] > family Hirundinidae > genus Delichan (house-martin) > other types of
purple martin1731
bottle swallow1896
1731 Philos. Trans. 1729–30 (Royal Soc.) 36 432 Hirundo purpurea, the purple Martin.
1812 A. Wilson Amer. Ornithol. V. 62 The Purple Martin, like his half-cousin the King-bird, is the terror of Crows, Hawks, and Eagles.
1998 Independent on Sunday 25 Oct. (Culture section) 8/5 The purple martin no longer nests in natural sites, but is dependent on a million US citizens for its accommodation.
purple sandpiper n. a small wading bird, Calidris maritima (family Scolopacidae), that breeds in Iceland, Greenland, and some other Arctic and subarctic regions and has predominantly dark grey plumage in winter.
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the world > animals > birds > order Charadriiformes > family Scolopacidae (snipes, etc.) > [noun] > genus Calidris > calidris maritima (purple sandpiper)
stone-pecker1731
red-legged sandpiper1785
red-leg1798
purple sandpiper1802
rock snipe1835
rock sandpiper1842
rock-bird1917
1802 G. Montagu Ornithol. Dict. at Sandpiper—Purple Purple Sandpiper.
1860 S. F. Baird Birds N. Amer. I. 717 The purple sandpiper..is frequently met with on the shores of the Atlantic.
1996 Scotland's Nat. Heritage Mar. (Cairngorms Suppl.) 14/2 Rarities such as purple sandpipers and Lapland bunting nest occasionally.
purple sea urchin n. any of several sea urchins with purple or purple-tipped spines, esp. Paracentrotus lividus of the east Atlantic, Arbacia punctulata of the west Atlantic, and Strongylocentrotus purpuratus of the east Pacific.
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1874 A. E. Verrill & S. I. Smith Rep. Invertebr. Animals Vineyard Sound 112 The purple sea-urchin, Arbacia punctulata, is..quite common in many localities.
1900 Overland Monthly Apr. 369/1 The purple sea-urchin (Strongylocentrotus purpurotus [sic])..is abundant on the west coast from La Paz, Mexico, to Alaska.
1971 D. Nichols & J. A. L. Cooke Oxf. Bk. Invertebr. 178 Psammechinus (Purple Sea-urchin). This hardy little urchin lives under rocks and overhangs.
purple shell n. (a) = sense B. 5 (now historical); (b) a violet sea snail of the genus Janthina (obsolete rare).
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the world > animals > invertebrates > subkingdom Metazoa > grade Triploblastica or Coelomata > class Gastropoda > [noun] > superorder Branchifera > order Prosobranchiata > section Holostomata > family Ianthinidae > member of genus Ianthina
carvel1657
purple shell1675
caravel1707
violet snail1845
1675 E. Sherburne in tr. M. Manilius Sphere 22 He finding on the Sea-shore an empty Murex or purple shell, is said to have wound it like a Horn.
1736 S. Humphreys tr. N. A. Pluche Spectacle de la Nature III. 12 The most full of Prickles among these last Kinds, as the Purple-Shell.., are of those whom the Ancients called Purples, or Purple-Fishes.
1850 I. Leeser tr. J. Schwarz Descriptive Geogr. & Hist. Sketch Palestine 197 Cheifa..was called Purpureon during the dominion of the Greeks and Romans, because the purple shell was often found and taken in the vicinity.
1885 Standard Nat. Hist. I. 325 (caption) Ianthina, purple shell, with the float supporting the eggs.
2001 Dumbarton Oaks Papers 55 352 Purple shell fishing was carried on in many fishing grounds along the coast of the Peloponnese.., Euboea, [etc.].
purple swamphen n. a large rail, Porphyrio porphyrio, which has deep purplish-blue plumage, a large red bill, and long red legs, found widely throughout the Old World; also called purple gallinule, swamphen, (New Zealand) pukeko.
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1949 Condor 51 204 A Palau resident which I happened not to find is the Purple Swamphen, Porphyrio porphyrio.
1982 R. Ellis Bush Safari 124 Purple Swamphens strutted like large bantams along mud banks.
2000 Guardian 18 Feb. ii. 20/2 Bill also catches sight of the purple swamphen, a giant version of the moorhen with some very odd eating habits.
purple-tailed parakeet n. Obsolete the sapphire-rumped parrotlet, Touit purpurata, of tropical South America, which has a blue rump and a mostly crimson tail.
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1781 J. Latham Gen. Synopsis Birds I. 315 Purple-tailed Parrakeet.
purple urchin n. = purple sea urchin n.
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1855 P. H. Gosse Man. Marine Zool. I. 61 The Purple Urchin (E[chinus] lividus) excavates hollows for itself in limestone rock, in which it resides.
1931 Jrnl. Ecol. 19 421 The most conspicuous animal form is Paracentrotus lividus (Lam.), the spiny purple urchin.
1962 Ecology 43 309/1 The purple urchin, Arbacia punctulata.., has a range from Yucatan to southern New England.
purple water-hen n. now rare a rail of the genus Porphyrio or a related genus; spec. = purple swamphen n.
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the world > animals > birds > order Gruiformes > [noun] > family Rallidae (rail) > porphyrio porphyrio (swamp hen)
porphyrioa1425
purple gallinule1782
purple water-hen1790
pukeko1835
sultana1837
swamp hen1848
1790 Nat. Hist. in J. White Jrnl. Voy. New S. Wales App. 238 To this genus belongs..a very beautiful exotic species called the Purple Water-hen, which is the Fulica porphyrio of Linnæus.
1883 A. Newton in Encycl. Brit. XVI. 808/2 Allied to all these is the genus Porphyrio, including the bird so named by classical writers, and perhaps a dozen other species often called Sultanas and Purple Water-hens.
1930 W. M. Mann Wild Animals in & out of Zoo App. i. 320 Porphyrio caeruleus (Purple water hen).
purple whelk n. now rare any of several dog whelks of the genus Nucella (or Thais); cf. sense B. 5.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > subkingdom Metazoa > grade Triploblastica or Coelomata > class Gastropoda > [noun] > superorder Branchifera > order Prosobranchiata > section Siphonostomata > family Thaididae > member of genus Purpura (purple)
purpure?a1425
purple1580
purple-fish1591
purple whelk1681
1681 N. Grew Musæum Regalis Societatis i. vi. i. 129 The Purple-Wilk with long plated Spikes.
1816 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 106 307 It somewhat resembles the secretion obtained from the buccinum lapillus, or purple whelk.
1879 Globe Encycl. V. 263/1 Purpura, a genus of Gasteropodous Molluscs..represented by the Common Purple Whelk (P. lapillus) of the British coasts.
1937 Amer. Midland Naturalist 18 198 Thais emarginata, the purple whelk, bores through the mussel shells and extracts the soft parts.
(b) In the names of plants having purple flowers, leaves, etc.
purple amaranth n. any of several amaranths; esp. the prince's feather, Amaranthus cruentus, and the slender amaranth, A. blitum, cultivated for its edible leaves.
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1722 T. Fairchild City Gardener 36 The Great Purple Amaranth, or Princes Feather, will make a large Plant, if it likes the Ground.
1769 J. Dicks New Gardener's Dict. at Leaf The leaves of the purple amaranth, whose upper surfaces were next the water, continued fresh three months.
1935 Ann. Missouri Bot. Garden 22 532 Amaranthus paniculatus... Purple Amaranth.
2002 Times Colonist (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) (Nexis) 28 Mar. b5 Dan Jason recommends the purple amaranth..and advises using the succulent, nutty young leaves raw for the first few weeks and then using the plants as a source of cooking greens.
purple apple n. Obsolete rare any of various tropical trees of the genus Annona (family Annonaceae); = custard apple n. 2.
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the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular food plant or plant product > particular fruit-tree or -plant > [noun] > tropical or exotic fruit-tree or -plant > of tropical America > sweet-sop tree
sweet-sop1696
water apple1696
sugar-apple1739
purple apple1754
custard tree1760
sweet-apple1760
sugar-sop1847
1754 P. Miller Gardeners Dict. (ed. 4) s.v. Guanabanus Guanabanus fructu purpureo. Plum. Nov. Gen. The Purple-apple.
1788 J. Lee Introd. Bot. (ed. 4) App. Purple apple, Annona.
purple beech n. (more fully purple beech tree) an ornamental variety of the beech, Fagus sylvatica, with purplish leaves.
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1792 Catal. Hot-house, Green-house, & Hardy Plants, Shrubs, & Trees (Dicksons & Co., Edinburgh) 68 Fagus..purpurea... Purple beech tree.
1906 Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 33 81 Not infrequently in the purple beech the young leaves will be of a distinct purplish-red color and almost entirely free from chlorophyl.
2005 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 5 Aug. e7/1 I love purple beech for its aubergine leaves, which turn bronze in late summer.
purple-berried bay n. now historical an evergreen tree of the family Oleaceae that has purple berries, variously identified with privet (genus Ligustrum) and devilwood ( Osmanthus americana).
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1732Purple-berried Bay [see purple-berried adj. at Compounds 1a(a)].
1767 W. Stork Acct. E. Florida 3 The Purple-berried Bay is called by Catesby a Ligustrum..but Dr. Solander says it is a species of olive: it is a beautful evergreen tree.
1943 Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc. 33 196 Bay, purple berried..devilwood (Osmanthus americana).
purple bottle n. rare (a) a purple-flowered plant, perhaps the cornflower, Centaurea cyanus (obsolete); (b) (in full purple bottle moss) a moss, Splachnum ampullaceum, with a reddish urn-shaped receptacle (apophysis).
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the world > plants > particular plants > moss > [noun] > other mosses
golden maidenhair1578
polytrichon1578
bryon1597
maidenhair moss1597
mountain coralline1598
chalice-moss1610
purple bottle1650
water moss1663
fern-moss1698
hypnum1753
Mnium1754
rock tripe1763
feather-moss1776
scaly water-moss1796
screw moss1804
hog-bed1816
fringe-moss1818
caribou moss1831
apple moss1841
bristle-moss1844
scale-moss1846
anophyte1850
robin's rye1854
wall moss1855
fork-moss1860
thread-moss1864
lattice moss1868
robin-wheat1886
1650 W. How Phytologia Britannica 33 Cyanus purpureus multiflorus, Ger. double purple Bottles. Variat flore albo.
1796 W. Withering Arrangem. Brit. Plants (ed. 3) III. 792 S. ampullaceum..Purple Bottle-moss.
1934 Webster's New Internat. Dict. Eng. Lang. Purple bottle, any moss of the genus Splachnum, esp. S. ampullaceum, in which the flask-shaped apophysis is highly colored.
purple broomrape n. rare the broomrape Orobanche purpurea of Eurasia and North Africa, which has bluish-purple flowers and is parasitic on yarrow.
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1797 J. E. Smith Eng. Bot. VI. 423 Orobanche cærulea. Purple Broom-rape.
1996 Times (Nexis) 7 Oct. (Home News section) Proposed improvements to the dock threaten the nationally rare yarrow or purple broom rape.
purple chamomile n. Obsolete rare the plant pheasant's eye, Adonis annua (see note to red maythe n. at maythe n. 2a).
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1548 W. Turner Names of Herbes sig. B.iv They call it in Englishe red mathes, alij, red mayde wed, alij, purple camomyle.
purple coneflower n. any of several North American perennial plants constituting the genus Echinacea (family Asteraceae ( Compositae)), esp. E. purpurea, which has flowers with a prominent dark central disc and purplish, downward-pointing rays around its edge.
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the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular cultivated or ornamental plants > particular flower or plant esteemed for flower > [noun] > composite flowers > other composite flowers
ox-eyea1400
starwort?a1450
Jupiter's beard1567
goldenrod1568
achillea1597
blue camomile1597
blue daisy1597
cineraria1597
hog's bean1597
jackanapes on horseback1597
sea-starwort1597
sultan flower1629
mouse-ear1696
aster1706
Canada goldenrod1731
ageratum1737
rudbeckia1751
coreopsis1753
melampodium1754
Aaron's rod1760
zinnia1761
Michaelmas daisy1767
China aster1785
New England aster1785
catananche1798
sea-aster1812
cosmea1813
cosmos1813
gazania1813
erigeron1815
gousblom1822
Christmas daisy1829
rhodanthe1834
tassel-flower1836
ligularia1839
old maid1839
mountain daisy1848
purple coneflower1848
acroclinium1852
sea ox-eye1856
thimble-weed1860
helipterum1862
treasure-flower1866
Swan River daisy1873
blanket flower1879
cone-flower1879
blue marguerite1882
Solidago1883
yellow-top1887
Gaillardia1888
gerbera1889
youth and old age1889
pussytoes1892
niggerhead1893
Transvaal daisy1899
Barberton daisy1906
onion grass1909
ursinia1928
Cupid's dart1930
Livingstone daisy1932
1848 A. Gray Man. Bot. Northern U.S. 223 Echinacea, Mœnch. Purple Cone-flower.
1939 National Geographic 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.
1989 Australasian Post (Melbourne) 26 Aug. 20/2 If every Australian took extracts of the echinacea plant—commonly known as the purple cone flower—then absenteeism from colds and flu would be halved.
purple cow-wheat n. rare the hemiparasitic European plant field cow wheat, Melampyrum arvense, which has pink-purple flowers and grows in cornfields and field margins; cf. cow-wheat n. 1.
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1752 C. Alston Index Medicamentorum 67 Purple Cow-wheat. Usu. Herb. Melanthium.
1800 J. E. Smith Flora Britannica II. 652 Melampyrum arvense..Purple Cow-wheat.
1962 H. Kamen tr. B. Pasternak In Interlude 63 Purple cow-wheat, gold Saint John's wort, Rosebay, thistle, camomile—As though enchanted by a spell They gaze on her.
purple-flowered moneywort n. Obsolete bog pimpernel, Anagallis tenella.
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1754 R. Brookes Introd. Physic & Surg. 222 With a pentapetaloide flower... Money-wort or Herb-two-pence, purple-flowered Money-wort, round-leaved Water Pimpernel [etc.]
1800 T. Garnett Observ. on Tour through Highlands I. 268 A considerable part of the skirts of Dun-y is covered with the Anagalis tenella, or purple-flowered money-wort.
purple gromwell n. the gromwell Lithospermum purpureocaeruleum, found in limestone areas of Eurasia and having purple flowers which turn blue; also called blue gromwell.
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the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular medicinal plants or parts > [noun] > gromwell
gromwella1350
millensole1545
graymill1548
mill of the sun1559
common gromwell1578
corn gromwell1578
pearl plant1578
lithospermon1646
milium solis?c1729
purple gromwell1783
stone-weed1847
lithosperm1865
1775 R. Weston Flora Anglicana 98 Lithospermum..officinale purpureum... Purple-flowered Gromwell.]
1783 W. Curtis Catal. Brit. Plants 95 Lithospermum purpuro-cæruleum. Gromwell purple.
1912 J. W. White Flora of Bristol 436 Purple Gromwell—Native; in woods and thickets, on limestone.
1979 Monumenta Nipponica 34 294/2 For the sake of a single shoot Of purple gromwell, I look upon All the grasses of Musashino With fondness.
purple groundsel n. = purple ragwort n.
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1794 T. Martyn tr. J. J. Rousseau Lett. Elements Bot. (ed. 4) xxvi. 390 The gardens have a purple African groundsel from the Cape; an annual plant with a yellow disk, and purple rays.]
1794 Bot. Mag. 7 238 Senecio Elegans. Purple Groundsel, or Ragwort.
1852 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 142 513 Among petals, the most remarkable I have observed are those of the purple groundsel.
1988 C. J. Webb et al. Flora of N.Z. IV. 273 Purple groundsel is sometimes cultivated for its attractive capitula especially in coastal localities.
purple honeysuckle n. (a) red clover, Trifolium pratense; or the inflorescence of this plant (obsolete rare); (b) any of several shrubs or trees having purplish flowers resembling those of common honeysuckle, Lonicera perclymenum; (c) any of several purple-flowered honeysuckles (genus Lonicera).
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1657 J. Beale Herefordshire Orchards 53 Ashes we find excellent to beget the white and purple Honeysuckle.
1767 Compl. Grazier xviii. 103 Great Clover... That is best which is brought from Flanders, and bears the great red or purple honeysuckle.
1851 Chambers's Papers for People XIX. 14 Some of the timber-trees bear fruit; others rich clusters of flowers, like the purple honeysuckle.
1906 Cent. Dict. The purple honeysuckle or azalea is Rhododendron nudiflorum.
1997 H. L. Flint Landscape Plants E. N. Amer (ed. 2) 343/2 ‘Purpurea’ (Hall's purple honeysuckle, Kansas purple honeysuckle) has purple tinted foliage and flowers that are dark red-purple on the outside.
2000 M. J. Eberhart Ten Million Steps 185 In some small coves here, and blooming very early, are the flame azaleas and the pinxter flower (purple honeysuckle).
purple jacobaea n. Obsolete = purple ragwort n.
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1757 P. Miller Gardener's Kalendar (ed. 11) 260 Plants now in Flower in the Pleasure-Garden... Purple Jacobæa.
1789 W. Aiton Hortus Kewensis III. 193 Elegant Groundsel, or Purple Jacobea. Nat[ive] of the Cape of Good Hope.
1890 Cent. Dict. at Ragwort Purple Ragwort, the purple jacobæa, Senecio elegans, a handsome garden species from the Cape of Good Hope.
purple lily n. any of various lilies or lily-like plants having blue or purple flowers; spec. (a) the martagon lily, Lilium martagon (obsolete); (b) Australian any of various blue- or purple-flowered flaglike plants of the genus Patersonia (family Iridaceae) (obsolete rare).
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the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular cultivated or ornamental plants > particular flower or plant esteemed for flower > [noun] > lily and allied flowers > lilies
lily971
lily-flower1340
martagon1440
delucea1450
red lily1531
purple lily1578
mountain lily1597
gold lily1629
Turk's cap1672
turn-cap1688
Juno's rose1706
orange lily1731
Canada lily1771
Japan lily1813
tiger-lily1824
Annunciation lily1853
Easter lily1860
golden-rayed lily1865
scarlet martagon1867
Japanese lily1870
Madonna lily1877
Bermuda lily1882
thimble lily1883
panther lily1884
triplet lily1884
turban-lily1884
Mary-lily1893
tiger1901
leopard lily1902
lilium1902
swamp lily1902
Washington lily1911
Shasta lily1915
regal lily1916
regale1920
Oregon lily1925
1578 H. Lyte tr. R. Dodoens Niewe Herball ii. xliii. 202 The red purple Lillie..Some call the greatest kinde Martagon.
1775 tr. Valuable Secrets Arts & Trades 191 A receipt to dye marble, or alabaster, in blue or purple. 1. Pound together, in a marble mortar, parsnips and purple lilies, with a sufficient quantity of white-wine vinegar.
1884 W. Miller Dict. Eng. Names Plants 228/1 Patersonia, Purple Lily, or Native Flag, of Australia.
2005 Frederick (Maryland) News-Post 3 Apr. d1/4 Yellow daffodils and purple lilies all blossoming in the spring sunshine.
purple loosestrife n. a herbaceous perennial, Lythrum salicaria (family Lyraceae), with distinctive spikes of purple flowers, which is commonly found in wetland areas and is often regarded as an invasive weed; cf. loosestrife n. 1b.
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the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular cultivated or ornamental plants > particular flower or plant esteemed for flower > [noun] > loosestrife and allied flowers
loosestrife1548
purple loosestrife1548
red loosestrife1548
red lysimachus1578
spiked or purple-spiked willow-herb1578
withy-herb1578
water willow1585
willow-wort1731
willow weed1866
swamp loosestrife-
1548 W. Turner Names of Herbes sig. E.ijv Lysimachia purpurea..may be called in englishe red loostryfe, or purple losestryfe.
1785 T. Martyn tr. J.-J. Rousseau Lett. Elements Bot. xx. 284 Purple Loosestrife is a handsome plant.
1861 R. Bentley Man. Bot. ii. iii. 538 Lythrum Salicaria, Purple Loosestrife, is a common British plant.
2002 U.S. News & World Rep. 13 May 61/2 Herbariums are used..to track the march of invasive species like purple loosestrife, which clogs lakes in the upper Midwest.
purple medick n. the fodder plant alfalfa, Medicago sativa.
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1793 T. Martyn Flora Rustica III. §76 It [sc. yellow medick] may probably turn out not to be superior to the purple Medick or Lucern.
1915 F. S. Harris & G. Stewart Princ. Agronomy xxi. 257 It [sc. Alfalfa] is Arabic and means best fodder... A few of the other names are Mexican clover.., purple medick, cultivated medicago [etc.].
1974 Encycl. Brit. Micropædia I. 230/3 Alfalfa, also called lucerne and purple medic, a perennial clover-like plant (Medicago sativa) of the pea family.
purple melic n. now rare (more fully purple melic grass) = moor grass n. 1(b).
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1776 W. Withering Bot. Arrangem. Veg. Great Brit. I. 48 Ropegrass with a simple nodding panicle, and the blossoms not fringed—Panicle red... Purple melic grass... In the Isle of Rasa they make this grass into ropes for fishing nets.
1804 C. Smith Conversations II. 108 In a few short months..Would velvet moss and purple melic rise.
1937 S. F. Armstrong Brit. Grasses (ed. 3) 136 Molinia cœrulea, Mœnch. (Purple Melick-grass, Flying Bent)... This plant is common on damp moors, peaty soils, woods, etc. in Britain.
purple milk-vetch n. a dwarf Eurasian milk-vetch, Astragalus danicus, bearing clusters of purple flowers and occurring in calcareous grassland and dunes.
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1737 P. Miller Gardeners Dict. (ed. 3) s.v. Astragalus English Purple Milk-Vetch of the Mountains.
1918 W. Graveson Brit. Wild Flowers (1919) xiv. 120 The Purple Milk Vetch growing on these downs has similar growth..to that of the Horse-shoe Vetch.
2005 Herald (Glasgow) (Nexis) 9 May 26 The purple milk-vetch, a small perennial herb which grows on sandstone sea cliffs in Scotland, has been classified as ‘endangered’.
purple moor-grass n. see moor grass n. 1(b).
purple mullein n. (a) moth mullein, Verbascum blattaria (obsolete); (b) a southern European mullein grown for ornament, V. phoeniceum, having flowers in various shades of purple, red, etc.
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1578 H. Lyte tr. R. Dodoens Niewe Herball i. lxxxii. 122 Of Blattaria, or Mothe Mulleyn... From the middle of those leaues doo spring up two or three stems, bearing fayre yellow floures, (and sometimes also it beareth purple flowers)... It may be called in English Purple, or Mothe Mulleyn.
1799 Lady C. Murray Brit. Garden I. 169 V. Phœniceum. Purple Mullein... Flowers from May to July... Native of the South of Europe.
1882 Garden 28 Oct. 377/1 The Purple Mullein..is an old garden favourite.
1924 L. H. Bailey Man. Cultivated Plants 674 V. phœniceum, L. Purple Mullein. To 5ft high..fls. in a simple slender nearly glabrous raceme, purple or red.
2002 Sunday Times (Nexis) 11 Aug. (Style section) 28 The small, lively and wiry purple mullein V. phoeniceum comes in shades of pink and mauve and looks good among Mediterranean sages and rosemary.
purple nut grass n. a widely naturalized sedge, Cyperus rotundus, whose roots form nutlike tubers and which is a serious weed in tropical regions; cf. nut grass n.
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1988 New Scientist 28 July 39/3 As the waters receded, they collected annual plants such as chamomile and tubers of purple nut-grass (Cyperus rotundus).
2000 A. M. T. Moore et al. Village on Euphrates iii. 71 These [swamps] can reasonably be expected to support extensive stands of..the common reed..and, in shallower water and on mud flats, the sea club-rush, and the purple nut-grass, Cyperus rotundus.
purple osier n. = purple willow n.
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the world > plants > particular plants > trees and shrubs > tree or shrub groups > willow and allies > [noun] > other types of willow
red willow1547
water willow1583
goat's willow1597
rose willow1597
sweet willow1597
French willow1601
siler1607
palm-withy1609
sallowie1610
swallowtail willow1626
willow bay1650
black willow1670
crack-willow1670
grey willow1697
water sallow1761
almond willowa1763
swallow-tailed willow1764
swamp willow1765
golden osier1772
golden willow1772
purple willow1773
sand-willow1786
goat willow1787
purple osier1797
whipcord1812
Arctic willow1818
sage-willow1846
pussy willow1851
Kilmarnock willow1854
sweet-bay willow1857
pussy1858
palm willow1869
Spaniard1871
ground-willow1875
Spanish willow1875
snap-willow1880
diamond willow1884
sandbar willow1884
pussy palm1886
creeping willow1894
bat-willow1907
cricket bat willow1907
silver willow1914
1797 J. Abercrombie Universal Gardener & Botanist (ed. 2) at Osier There are different sorts of Osiers, such as the yellow, green, purple, Dutch Osier, wire Osier, &c.
1893 J. Nesbit Brit. Forest Trees 327 The purple osier (S. purpurea), so called from the colour of its anthers during the time of flowering, produces very thin but exceedingly tough withes.
2003 Irish Times (Nexis) 8 Mar. (Weekend section) 58 Willows can shoot up by as much as three metres a year, and include the purple osier..to supply the slender, supple twigs for finer baskets.
purple ragwort n. an annual, purple-flowered South African ragwort, Senecio elegans, often cultivated for ornamental purposes; cf. Jacobaea n. 1.
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1745 P. Miller Gardeners Kalendar (ed. 7) 74 Purple-flower'd Ragwort.]
1754 P. Miller Gardeners Kalendar (ed. 10) 315 Plants in Flower in the open Air..if the season be mild..the purple Ragwort, Eupatoriums, Clinopodiums, and Helenia's.
1890 Cent. Dict. at Ragwort Purple Ragwort, the purple jacobæa, Senecio elegans, a handsome garden species from the Cape of Good Hope.
1976 Hortus Third (L. H. Bailey Hortorium) 1035/2 Senecio elegans L. (Jacobaea elegans... Purple Ragwort... S.Afr.; escaped in Calif.
purple saxifrage n. a low-growing purple-flowered saxifrage, Saxifraga oppositifolia, found on rocky landscapes in north temperate regions.
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1798 W. Curtis Flora Londinensis II. facing Pl. 83 Saxifraga Oppositifolia. Purple Saxifrage... This species of Saxifrage, the only British one with purple flowers, is found plentifully on the summits of our highest mountains.
1888 F. A. Lees Flora W. Yorks. 246 Saxifraga oppositifolia L. Purple Saxifrage... Native; exposed alpine rocks, very rare, locally plentiful.
2000 P. Pullman Amber Spyglass (2001) iii. 43 And in confirmation, a little Arctic flower, a purple saxifrage, blossomed improbably where the witch had planted it as a signal in a cranny of the rock.
purple sprouting broccoli n. an early variety of broccoli with purplish flower heads, widely grown as a vegetable; cf. sprouting broccoli n. at sprouting adj. Compounds.
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1917 Times 14 Apr. 9/5 The purple-sprouting broccoli would be grown in the ornamental garden did not its utility exceed its beauty.
2003 Org. Gardening Sept. 24/1 The Romans also grew purple sprouting broccoli—still loved by many gardeners.
purple spurge n. a small prostrate purplish spurge, Euphorbia peplis, found on sandy coastal areas in southern and western Europe (and formerly the British Isles).
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1719 tr. J. Pitton de Tournefort Compl. Herbal I. 37/2 Purple Sea-Spurge.]
?1785 Earl of Bute Bot. Tables II. 418 Purple Spurge. E. peplis. Stem of 4 inches, decumbent, reddish.
1920 J. Vaughan Music of Wild Flowers i. 12 When on a visit to the Isle of Wight [J. S.] Mill noticed on the shore of Sandown Bay a single specimen of the purple spurge.
1992 Guardian (Nexis) 28 Nov. 3 The saddest entry of all is for the purple spurge, once seen on the beaches of the west and south of England. It has become extinct, and is therefore removed from the protected list.
purple-tassels n. rare the tassel hyacinth, Muscari comosum; cf. purse tassel n. (b) at purse n. Compounds 2.
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the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular cultivated or ornamental plants > particular flower or plant esteemed for flower > [noun] > lily and allied flowers > hyacinth and allied flowers > grape-hyacinth or tassel-hyacinth
fair-haired hyacinth1597
grape-flower1597
muscari1597
pearls of Spain1597
musk grape-flower1598
musk-grape1607
musk hyacinth1629
purple-tassels1629
purse tassel1629
grape hyacinth1733
musk1786
starch hyacinth1790
tassel hyacinth1790
1629 J. Parkinson Paradisi in Sole 118 Called..the purple faire haired Iacinth..and..of diuers Gentlewomen, purple tassels.
1902 T. W. Sanders Encycl. Gardening (ed. 5) 316 Purple-tassels (Muscari comosum)—see Muscari.
purple velvet flower n. Obsolete rare any of various kinds of cultivated amaranths; = velvet-flower n. at velvet n. Compounds 4c.
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the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular cultivated or ornamental plants > foliage, house, or garden plants > [noun] > amaranth and allied plants
floramour1548
purple velvet flower1548
velvet-flower1548
Balder-herb1552
flower-gentle1561
passevelours1597
love lies bleeding1664
prince's feather1668
symphonia1728
tricolour1786
celosia1807
Joseph's coat1866
thrumwort1866
1548 W. Turner Names of Herbes sig. A.vijv The other kynde [of Amaranthus] is called here in Englande of some purple veluet floure, of other flouramore.
1658 E. Phillips New World Eng. Words Floramor, a flower called the flower of love, passevelours, or purple velvet flower.
1719 F. A. de Alvarado Spanish & Eng. Dialogues 279 Amaránto. The Amaranth, or purple velvet Flower.
1800 T. Arnold Engelske Grammatik i Kort Begreb 30 Fløjels-Blomst, the Purple-Velvet Flower.
purple willow n. a shrubby European willow, Salix purpurea, which has purplish bark and was formerly much used in basket making.
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the world > plants > particular plants > trees and shrubs > tree or shrub groups > willow and allies > [noun] > other types of willow
red willow1547
water willow1583
goat's willow1597
rose willow1597
sweet willow1597
French willow1601
siler1607
palm-withy1609
sallowie1610
swallowtail willow1626
willow bay1650
black willow1670
crack-willow1670
grey willow1697
water sallow1761
almond willowa1763
swallow-tailed willow1764
swamp willow1765
golden osier1772
golden willow1772
purple willow1773
sand-willow1786
goat willow1787
purple osier1797
whipcord1812
Arctic willow1818
sage-willow1846
pussy willow1851
Kilmarnock willow1854
sweet-bay willow1857
pussy1858
palm willow1869
Spaniard1871
ground-willow1875
Spanish willow1875
snap-willow1880
diamond willow1884
sandbar willow1884
pussy palm1886
creeping willow1894
bat-willow1907
cricket bat willow1907
silver willow1914
1773 W. Hanbury Compl. Body Planting & Gardening I. 180/1 The real and distinct species of the Willow are: 1. The White Willow. 2. The Yellow Willow. 3. Purple Willow [etc.].
1874 H. D. B. Bailey Local Tales 217 Everything indicated an early spring. The bilberry was in full blossom..and the purple willow was shooting forth its tender branches.
1993 Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey) 21 Feb. ii. 5/2 Plants that will manage in wet sandy soil include..privet, purple willow, pussy willow, hybrid poplar, [etc.].
purplewood n. any of several purplish tropical American woods, esp. purpleheart (cf. purple heart n. 1a).
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1755 R. Goade Boerhaave's Materia Medica 67 Campechianum lignum. Logwood. A purple Wood brought over in Logs... It is the Heart of a large Tree, native of the hotter Parts of America.
1776 W. J. Mickle tr. L. de Camoens Lusiad x. 477 That mighty realm for purple wood renown'd, Shall stretch the Lusian empire's western bound.
1858 P. L. Simmonds Dict. Trade Products 307/1 Purple-wood, an undefined Brazilian wood, principally used for ramrods, and occasionally for buhl work, marquetry, and turning.
1923 Burlington Mag. June 292/1 The remaining secrétaire stamped by Riesener..goes further in simplicity of woodwork—panels of thuja, with borders of purple-wood (amaranthe).
1999 Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair: 1999 Handbk. 141/4 Boxwood stringing, set into the purplewood, enhances the line of the shaped apron and splay feet.
purple wreath n. queen's wreath, Petrea volubilis.
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1864 A. H. R. Grisebach Flora Brit. W. Indian Islands 789/1 Wreath, purple: Petrea volubilis.
1964 T. M. Greensill Gardening in Tropics iii. ii. 117 Petrea volubilis (Verbenaceae)—‘Purple Wreath’. A strong, woody perennial twining plant which can grow to 20 feet.
2003 Innisfail (Australia) Advocate (Nexis) 31 May (News section) 6 Petrea, the purple wreath, is often mistaken for wisteria, the bright blue flowers cover the vine from winter to spring.
(c)
purple airway n. colloquial a route reserved for an aircraft on which a monarch or a member of a royal family is flying.
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society > travel > air or space travel > specific movements or positions of aircraft > air as medium for operation of aircraft > [noun] > route through the air > types of
shuttle route1942
purple airway1955
purple zone1970
1955 Daily Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) 1 Feb. 12/2 Air control experts met at London Airport last night and fixed a 5,000-mile long ‘Purple Airway’ for Princess Margaret's flight to Trinidad today.
1970 Times 1 Aug. 1/7 When the Royal Family fly long distances a special ‘purple airway’ is imposed.
2002 Times (Nexis) 18 July 9 The Queen has the additional safety of a ‘purple airway’.
purple bacterium n. [after German Purpurbacterium (T. W. Engelmann 1888, in Bot. Zeitung 46 663)] Microbiology any of various bacteria of the suborder Rhodospirillineae and allied groups, which contain a purple photoactive pigment.
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the world > life > biology > organism > micro-organism > bacterium > [noun] > types of
vibrio1850
micrococcus1870
microzyme1870
Spirillum1875
mycothrix1876
leptothrix1877
Spirochaete1877
streptococcus1877
Actinomyces1879
frogspawn1880
schizophyte1880
schizomycetes1881
gonococcus1882
saprophile1882
vibrion1882
coccus1883
diplococcus1883
streptobacteria1883
Clostridium1884
actinomycetes1885
pneumococcus1885
macrococcus1887
staphylococcus1887
iron bacterium1888
Proteus1888
ferrobacterium1890
meningococcus1890
rhizobium1890
sulphobacteria1890
nitrobacterium1891
Streptothrix1891
sulphur bacterium1891
myxobacter1892
Myxococcus1892
tetracoccus1893
coli1894
Pasteurella1895
pyrotoxin1895
Gaertner1897
purple bacterium1897
myxobacterium1898
pseudomonas1899
thiobacteria1900
treponema1908
corynebacterium1909
mycobacterium1909
Salmonella1913
Neisseria1915
botulinum1916
rickettsia1916
leptospira1918
acetobacter1920
Brucella1920
pseudomonad1921
strep1927
enterobacterium1929
opportunist1937
eubacterium1939
agrobacterium1942
persister1944
Moraxella1948
enteric1956
streptomycete1956
leptospire1957
transformant1957
lysogen1958
listeria1961
C. difficile1962
yersinia1967
Campylobacter1971
cyanobacterium1973
coryneform1976
eubacterium1977
legionella1979
acetogen1982
C. diff.1990
acidophilous1996
1897 Bot. Gaz. 24 447 He [sc. Engelmann]..shows that the purple bacteria..have photosynthetic powers, although this property is not marked.
1912 W. H. Lang tr. Strasburger's Text-bk. 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.
1994 Nature 14 July 104/1 Scotophobic behaviour is typical of motile purple bacteria, is independent of the direction of illumination, and does not occur if the light intensity is reduced only gradually.
purple chamber n. historical a room in the palace of the Byzantine Emperors in which members of the royal family were born, believed either to be decorated with purple cloth or to be inlaid with porphyry; the porphyry chamber (cf. porphyrogenite n. and sense B. 1d); also in extended use.
ΚΠ
1683 R. Dixon Canidia iii. iv. 20 Porphyrogenitus, sweet as Amber. Was begot in the Purple Chamber.
1831 W. Scott Count Robert iii, in Tales of my Landlord 4th Ser. I. 87 An imperial Princess, porphyrogenita, or born in the sacred purple chamber itself.
a1874 S. Dobell Poet. Wks. (1875) ii. 27 These pamper'd ears, born in the purple chamber Of silken state.
2000 Past & Present 169 27 The famous epithet [sc. ‘born in the purple’] derives from the purple chamber in which empresses were delivered of their children from the mid-eighth century onwards.
purple-coat n. Obsolete a soldier whose uniform is characterized by a purple coat; cf. redcoat n. 1a.
ΚΠ
1644 J. Vicars Jehovah-jireh 200 The Lord Brooke his Purple-coats..did most singular good service all this fight.
purple copper n. Mineralogy Obsolete = purple copper ore n.
ΚΠ
1830 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 120 402 The relative power of conducting galvanic electricity possessed by many of the metalliferous minerals... Conductors. Copper nickel, Purple Copper, [etc.].
1864 H. Watts Dict. Chem. II. 78 Purple copper does not give off sulphur when ignited in a test-tube.
1881 Trans. Amer. Inst. Mining Engineers 1880–1 9 122 Copper-ores,..purple copper (variegated or peacock ore, bornite, sulphide of copper and iron).
purple copper ore n. Mineralogy (now rare) a purple ore of copper; spec. bornite.
ΚΠ
a1728 J. Woodward Attempt Nat. Hist. Fossils Eng. (1729) 198 A glossy Purple Copper-Ore. Comarten, Devonshire.
1865 Times 27 Mar. 4/5 These [lodes] contain purple copper ore and gray copper ore, both extremely rich in silver.
1910 Encycl. Brit. IX. 757/1 The colour on a freshly fractured surface is bronzy or coppery, but in moist air this rapidly tarnishes with iridescent blue and red colours; hence the names purple copper ore, variegated copper ore.., horse-flesh ore, and erubescite.
purple death n. slang a cheap red wine.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > drink > intoxicating liquor > wine > class or grade of wine > [noun] > cheap or inferior wine
drum-winea1640
red ink1849
Gladstone (claret)1864
pinkie1897
dago red1906
pinard1917
ink1918
plonk1927
grocer's Graves1931
grocer's wine1931
nelly1941
Red Ned1941
vaaljapie1945
purple death1947
grocer's sherry1958
papsak2004
1947 D. M. Davin Gorse blooms Pale 199 Everyone goes for the purple death.
2006 Daily News (New Plymouth, N.Z.) (Nexis) 18 Feb. 17 The subsequent ashes [were] filtered into a bottle of Purple Death (a dodgy Hawke's Bay red from the early 1980s).
purple-dyeing adj. and n. (a) adj. (of a substance) that acts as a purple dye (obsolete); (b) n. the process or practice of dyeing cloth purple.
ΚΠ
1607 T. Walkington Optick Glasse v. f. 33v Murex, the purple fish, who yeldes her purple-dying humor, being but once strucke.
1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl. at Trumpet-shell The purple-dying liquor of the buccinum.
1858 National Mag. Feb. 130/1 Long subsequent to the discovery of the art of purple-dying, any person might wear robes of that color.
1877 Globe Encycl. II. 298/1 Cudbear, a purple dyeing substance prepared from various lichens.
2004 L. J. Hall Rom. Berytus x. 231 It is possible to trace the gradual restriction of purple dyeing to government-controlled facilities with occasional attempts by the dyers to sell privately.
purple-fly n. Obsolete (a) Angling a kind of artificial fly; (b) a kind of flying insect (not identified) (rare).
ΚΠ
1696 J. Smith Compleat Fisher 131 The Purple-fly, with Purple Wool, mixed with light brown Bears-Hair, the Wings of Stares Feather, Dub it with Purple Silk.
1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl. Mida,..the name of a worm or maggot, of which is produced the purple fly, found on bean-flowers.
1799 tr. Laboratory (ed. 6) II. x. 311 Purple-fly. Dubbing, of purple wool, and a little bear's hair mixed.
purple haze n. slang (now dated) lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), used as a recreational drug; cf. sense B. 9(b).
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > use of drugs and poison > an intoxicating drug > [noun] > hallucinogenic drug > LSD
white lightning1907
lysergic acid diethylamide1944
LSD1950
lysergic acid1952
acid1965
lysergide1965
purple haze1967
purple1968
Strawberry Fields1971
1967 J. Hendrix Purple Haze (sheet music) 2 Purple haze was in my brain, Lately things don't seem the same.
1970 Times 24 Mar. 2/3 The American LSD..has been coming in..under such exotic names as..‘purple haze’, and ‘blue cheer’.
1996 Guardian 12 Oct. (Jobs & Money section) 6/4 Tripped-out space cadets will fork out in excess of £960 on purple haze.
purple lake n. a lake (pigment) of a purple colour, formerly made from the cochineal insect, Dactylopius coccus.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > colour > named colours > purple or purpleness > purple dye or pigment > [noun]
turnsole1375
cork1483
jarecork1483
orchil1483
purple1519
purpurisse1519
archil1551
waycoriant1658
orchilla1703
cudbear1772
purple lake1785
imperial purple1788
mauve?1796
phenicin1823
French purple1830
indigo-purple1838
mauve1859
Perkin's mauve1859
violine1859
mauveine1863
purple of Cassiusc1865
tyroline1867
Paris violet1868
Hofmann violet1869
methyl violet1873
punicin1879
crystal violet1885
chrome violet1892
mineral violet1913
Monastral1936
manganese purple1937
1785 Independent Jrnl. (N.Y.) 9 Nov. (advt.) R. Green... Prepares and sells, whole sale and Retail, the following Articles... Fine Prussian Blue, Fine Purple Lake, [etc.].
1821 London Mag. Sept. 290/2 The purple-lake-coloured stuffs.
1934 H. Hiler Notes Technique Painting ii. 123 Crimson lake, Purple lake, etc., now usually made from alizarin... Also prepared from cochineal... Should be regarded as obsolete.
1996 Stud. Conservation 41 86/1 During the late nineteenth century cochineal was used in the production of carmine, crimson, and three purple lakes.
Purpleman n. a person who has reached the second rank or degree in the Orange Order; cf. Orangeman n.1
ΚΠ
1823 Times 9 May 2/5 Witness certainly did not conceive that his oath, as an Orangeman, bound him to conceal any truth from the house. Knows so little of party matter, that he cannot well say whether he is a ‘purple-man’ or not.
1836 Fraser's Mag. 13 393 The very names of ‘Orangeman’ and ‘Purpleman’ are beneath the real elevation of their high and noble cause.
1972 T. Gray Orange Order 215 In Northern Ireland [the Arch Purple] merely represents a transitional stage through which a Purpleman must go before he becomes one of the Black Preceptories.
2002 K. Haddick-Flynn Short Hist. Orangeism 61 Most Orangemen are ‘Purplemen’ and its degree is regarded as the culmination of the natural progression through the Orange Order.
purple meeting n. (in the Orange Order) a meeting of Purplemen.
ΚΠ
1906 Daily News 10 Feb. 8/2 Injuries inflicted on the roadside..after a ‘purple’ meeting in the Bush Side Orange Hall.
purple membrane n. a membrane containing photoactive pigments which is produced under certain conditions in the archaebacterium Halobacterium salinarium.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > substance > cell > parts of cell > [noun] > wall or membranes
septum1720
cell wall1840
valve1852
periplast1853
stroma1872
ghost1879
endoplasmic reticulum1883
plasma membrane1893
plasmalemma1923
unit membrane1958
purple membrane1968
1968 Stoeckenius & Kunau in Jrnl. Cell Biol. 38 344/1 The purple band, henceforth called purple membranes, contains considerably less RNA and slightly less lipid than the orange-red fraction.
1997 Jrnl. Molecular Biol. 267 172 The Halobacterium salinarium purple membrane is a two-dimensional crystalline lattice containing bacteriorhodopsin (BR) and lipid.
purple passage n. [after classical Latin purpureus pannus (see purple patch n.)] an elaborate or excessively ornate passage in a literary composition.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > ornateness > [noun] > embellishment > ornate passage
flaunt-tant1661
purple patch?1704
squirt1872
purple passage1882
1882 Macmillan's Mag. Jan. 211/2 The book is..marked by great reserve and quietness of tone... There is not a ‘purple passage’ in all the two volumes.
1895 E. Gosse in Cent. Mag. July 451/2 Emphasizing the purpler passages with lifted voice and gesticulating finger.
1937 Discovery Oct. 326/2 Mrs. Johnson says little about herself, indulges in no purple passages, and without the conscious effort of the raconteur she manages to introduce many good stories.
2001 S. T. Asma Stuffed Animals & Pickled Heads v. 197 One of her purple passages reads: ‘The doctrine of Mr. Darwin is the rational revelation of progress, pitting itself in its logical antagonism with the irrational revelation of the fall’.
purple powder of Cassius n. Obsolete = purple of Cassius n. at sense B. 4.
ΚΠ
1782Purple powder of Cassius [see sense B. 4].
1823 A. Ure Dict. Chem. (ed. 2) 492/2 A plate of tin, immersed in a solution of gold, affords a purple powder, called the purple powder of Cassius.
1848 Lancet 20 May 548/1 The oxide, or rather deutoxide, of gold,—the purple powder of Cassius, is the next form.
purple prose n. overly ornate or fussy prose; cf. purple passage n.
ΚΠ
1901 North Adams (Mass.) Evening Transcript 27 Feb. It is probably in the wine and egg period that he composes accounts of Nero banquets and other purple prose matter.
1952 N. Straus Two Thirds of Nation iv. 77 He sees advertisements describing new houses for sale... Glowing adjectives and purple prose embellish the descriptions.
2004 Times Lit. Suppl. 10 Dec. 29/1 A good editor would have..written rude comments in the margins near the frequent passages of purple prose.
purple quartz n. Mineralogy (a) = amethyst n. 1a; (b) U.S. regional = fluorspar n. (obsolete).
ΚΠ
1819 W. T. Brande Man. Chem. v. 327 Purple quartz or amethyst is tinged with a little iron and manganese.
1896 Cosmopolitan Feb. 449 The fluor-spar is locally known as ‘purple quartz’.
1943 Science 11 June 531 Milky quartz, rose quartz and purple quartz (amethyst) are useless [for the manufacture of quartz oscillator plates].
1994 Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) 3 Aug. 14/1 Amethyst—a purple quartz is calming. It also sharpens the concious mind.
purple rash n. Medicine Obsolete rare = purpura n. 2 (cf. sense B. 3).
ΚΠ
a1812 R. Willan Classif. Cutaneous Dis. in J. Thomson tr. W. Cullen Synopsis Nosol. (1816) App. 143 Purpura; Purple, or Scorbutic Rash.
purple sin n. a grave or heinous sin.
ΚΠ
1601 R. Yarington Two Lamentable Trag. sig. K2 The blood of Iesus Christ hath power, To make my purple sinne as white as Snowe.
1658 J. Spencer Καινα και Παλαια 507 In thy Youth thou art not Cloath but Wooll; so that the deepest Purple sins are those which are died in the Wooll.
1850 R. Bell Ladder of Gold III. vi. i. 156 Let ruin come, I have plucked out the purple sin, and shown its hollowness to the world.
1905 H. A. Vachell Hill vii. 147 I never said bridge was a purple sin.
1987 A. Powell in Sunday Times (1997) (Nexis) 21 Sept. Striking how much Wilde himself accepted Victorian view of homosexuality as a ‘purple sin’, rather than physiological mutation.
purple zone n. = purple airway n.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > air or space travel > specific movements or positions of aircraft > air as medium for operation of aircraft > [noun] > route through the air > types of
shuttle route1942
purple airway1955
purple zone1970
1970 Daily Tel. 1 Aug. 1/2 ‘A purple zone’ was not in operation..because the Prince was flying only in the immediate area of Tangmere.
2004 Daily Record (Glasgow) (Nexis) 12 Nov. 4 All royal flights plot an exact route and other aircraft are warned to stay clear of the area, known as a ‘purple zone’.
C2. Compounds of the noun.
a.
(a) Objective.
purple-dyer n.
ΚΠ
1738 E. A. Burgis Ann. Church IV. 340 Lydia the purple-dyer.
1848 Amer. Whig Rev. Sept. 243/2 Laodicea was proud of her inimitable horsemen; Lydia of her purple-dyers.
1904 W. M. Ramsay Lett. to Seven Churches xxix. 421 The Jews..were organised in trade-guilds, the purple-dyers, the carpet makers, and perhaps others.
2000 Jrnl. Biblical Lit. 119 317 An association of purple dyers is found at Thessalonica.
purple-producing adj.
ΚΠ
1898 J. Hastings Dict. Bible I. 457 For other purple-producing shellfish see Purple.
1937 H. Pope St. Augustine of Hippo i. 18 In the purple-producing island of Girba..Libyan was spoken, as Berber indeed is to this day.
2003 San Francisco Chron. (Nexis) 9 Feb. (Sunday Review section) 2 We find ourselves in Lebanon in search of the purple-producing shellfish valued by ancient Phoenician traders.
(b) Instrumental.
purple-clad adj.
ΚΠ
1639 G. Daniel Ecclus. xxxiii. 45 Heare me, O you purple-Clad Magistrates, You civill Rulers.
1823 M. W. Shelley Valpurga II. vii. 161 The purple-clad emperors of Constantinople may envy your state and power.
1904 St. Nicholas May 612/2 Where Izumo's walls appear purple-clad, the gods assembled in the tenth month of every year.
1999 Transition 80 4/1 I raced wide-eyed through my purple-clad hero's latest adventures.
purple-dusted adj.
ΚΠ
1870 W. Morris Earthly Paradise: Pt. IV 383 The purple-dusted butterfly.
1952 Fresno (Calif.) Bee 24 Aug. b2/6 The purple dusted fruit carpets the ground.
2004 Sunday Tel. (Nexis) 19 Dec. (Review) 20 In some she placed succulent plants such as the purple-dusted Echeveria ‘Perle von Nurnberg’.
purple-dyed adj.
ΚΠ
1579 T. North tr. Plutarch Liues 393 If it be a commendable thing..not to care for purple dyed gownes, nor for houses with plastered walles: it followeth then [etc.].
1876 D. Rock Textile Fabrics (new ed.) v. 39 The costly purple-dyed silks called ‘blatta’.
1943 Amer. Jrnl. Archaeol. 47 266 They are all purple-dyed woollen stuffs, embroidered with wool of various colors.
1993 Atlantic Aug. 55/2 She spoke about the ancient ‘purple trade’—the trade in expensive purple-dyed fabric.
purple-edged adj.
ΚΠ
1702 S. Gilbert Florists Vade-mecum (ed. 3) 35 The rest have green thick leaves and broad,..some smooth and plain on the edges, others downy and jagged, or purple edged [1682 purled edges; 1693 purled edged].
1875 E. Poste tr. Gaius Institutionum Iuris Civilis (ed. 2) i. Comm. 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.
1914 E. S. Boucher Spain under Rom. Empire ii. v. 69 Purple-edged tunics of linen were sometimes worn on a campaign by Iberian soldiers.
2006 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 14 Apr. f7 They must be stripped of that protective sac..down to the milky white, purple-edged bulb.
purple-lined adj.
ΚΠ
1749 Mill Cushion's Second Addr. 11 From the purple-lined Closet, to the Cobler's Bulk,..ye will hear all declare, the most foolish action is the most fashionable.
1820 J. Keats Lamia ii, in Lamia & Other Poems 29 The purple-lined palace of sweet sin.
1938 E. Bowen Death of Heart ii. iii. 215 Portia bought a compendium—lightly ruled violet paper, purple lined envelopes.
2003 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) May 217/3 People wore purple-lined Ozwald Boateng suits.
purple-stained adj.
ΚΠ
1597 R. Johnson 2nd Pt. Famous Hist. Seauen Champions sig. Iv She will procure to take a strange reuenge vpon his purple-stayned soule.
1820 J. Keats Ode to Nightingale in Lamia & Other Poems 108 With..purple-stained mouth.
1969 R. L. S. Bruce-Mitford Art of Codex Amiatinus 3 The third leaf, a purple-stained folio with text written in yellow orpiment (not gold), carried on its recto and verso respectively a prologue and a table of contents.
2006 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 24 Mar. a18 Freedom is as much about the culture and customs of a society as it is about the spectacle of heavily guarded elections and purple-stained fingers.
purple-tinged adj.
ΚΠ
1726 E. Fenton in A. Pope et al. tr. Homer Odyssey IV. xix. 275 A mantle purple-ting'd [Gk. δίπλακα δῶκα καλὴν πορϕυρέην], and radiant vest.
1824 D. M. Moir Legend Genevieve 232 These lichen'd stones, all purple-tinged and blue..Untouch'd have lain, and undisturb'd and lone!
1952 A. G. L. Hellyer Sanders' Encycl. Gardening (ed. 22) 393 P[opulus]..tremula, ‘Aspen’,..with vars. pendula, ‘Weeping Aspen’, and purpurea, purple-tinged foliage.
1996 R. Mabey Flora Britannica 293/2 It is a tall and handsome species with purple-tinged, ‘claret-dipped’ flower-heads.
b.
purple-born n. and adj. (a) adj.Of, relating to, or designating a person who is ‘born to the purple’ (see sense B. 1d); (b) n.(with the) such a person (rare).
ΚΠ
1820 J. H. Wiffen Julia Alpinula 164 I heard all day the shrilling horn proclaim The captive's freedom, and the monarch's shame, And smiled to think, that I..Could with such dread the purple-born assault!
1865 A. Trollope Can you forgive Her? II. xl. 317 Lady Glencora and Alice were sitting up-stairs with the small, purple-born one in their presence.
1952 N. Mitchison Trav. Light ii. i. 60 In the innermost hall was the Purple-born, and on orders of the Purple-born was all done.
1999 N. Garland Byzantine Empresses viii. 142 Psellos here intends us to believe that Basil had Zoe trained for her position as purple-born princess and possible heir of the empire.
purple father n. a cardinal; cf. sense B. 1c.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > church government > member of the clergy > clerical superior > cardinal > [noun]
cardinallOE
redcap?1539
carnalc1540
prince1581
red hat1598
purple father1615
national1625
eminence1653
eminency1670
nationist1670
redshank1824
1615 R. Brathwait Strappado 47 A purple sin..Since purple-fathers oft-times go vnto it.
a1711 T. Ken Edmund iv, in Wks. (1721) II. 105 Even Purple Fathers of my Favours boast, They who should best know Heav'n, esteem me most.
1928 Times 31 Dec. 13/6 Henry [VIII] added a tennis court to the Palace which the Purple Father [sc. Cardinal Wolsey] had given him.
purple gland n. Zoology the hypobranchial gland of some gastropod molluscs, esp. those that yield Tyrian purple.
ΚΠ
1883 Encycl. Brit. XVI. 648/2 The presence of glandular plication of the surface of the mantle-flap..and an adrectal gland (purple-gland).
1958 J. E. Morton Molluscs ii. 47 Indigoid pigments occur as in the purple gland in Muricacea, often too in their egg cases.
2001 Systematic Biol. 50 785/1 Two glands in sea hares produce an external secretion, the opaline gland..and the ink or purple gland.
purple-seller n. historical a person selling Tyrian purple, esp. St Lydia of Thyatira (see Acts 16:14–15).
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > trader > traders or dealers in specific articles > [noun] > in textiles, clothing, or yarns
mercerc1230
clothier1362
draper1362
woolman1390
yarn-chopper1429
line-draper1436
Welsh drapera1525
telerc1540
purple-seller1547
linen-draper1549
staplera1552
silkman1553
woollen-draper1554
wool-driver1555
woolster1577
linener1616
woolner1619
linen-man1631
ragman1649
rag merchant1665
slop-seller1665
bodice-seller1672
piece-broker1697
wool-stapler1709
cloth-man1723
Manchester-man1755
fleece-merchanta1774
rag dealer1777
man's mercer1789
keelman1821
man-mercer1837
cotton-broker1849
slopper1854
shoddyite1865
costumier1886
cotton-man1906
1547 J. Bale Lattre Examinacyon A. Askewe f. 44 Lydia by name, a purple seller verye rytche in merchaundyse, receyued Paule, Sylas, and Timothe.
1629 L. Andrewes XCVI. Serm. v. 315 The Purple seller (and if the purple seller, why not the Purple wearer?)..were in earth, Saints (as we reade) and are (we doubt not) in Abraham's bosome.
1702 L. Echard Gen. Eccl. Hist. ii. v. 193 To these Paul deliver'd the Word of God, and by the Influence of God's Spirit converted, among others, a certain Woman nam'd Lydia, a Purple Seller.
1859 P. Schaff Hist. Apostolic Church i. iii. 263 One of these, Lydia, a purple-seller of Thyatīra..was baptized with all her family.
1985 Vigiliae Christianae 39 194 As to Lydia the purple-seller..M.'s conclusion that she belonged to the ‘Greek-speaking merchants who have settled in Philippi’ and possessed ‘some wealth’ is too optimistic.
purple-wearer n. a person who habitually wears purple, esp. (formerly) a rich or noble person (cf. sense B. 1b).
ΚΠ
1629 L. Andrewes XCVI. Serm. v. 315 The Purple seller (and if the purple seller, why not the Purple wearer?)..were in earth, Saints (as we reade) and are (we doubt not) in Abraham's bosome.
1860 G. W. Thornbury Turkish Life & Char. i. v. 97 Aqueducts built by some forgotten purple-wearer.
a1906 P. L. Dunbar Coll. Poetry (1993) 32 Love is the King, the Purple-Wearer.
2002 Sunday Times (Nexis) 29 Sept. (Style section) 9 These days, rather than posh people with an eye for colour, purple-wearers are likely to be gold-digging, money-grabbing, castle-creeping adventurers with raisons way beyond their etre.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2007; most recently modified version published online June 2022).

purplev.

Brit. /ˈpəːpl/, U.S. /ˈpərp(ə)l/
Forms: see purple adj. and n.
Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: purple adj.
Etymology: < purple adj. Compare slightly earlier purpled adj.
1. transitive. To make purple (in any of the shades denoted or formerly denoted by this term: see purple adj. 2a); to stain, tinge, or dye with purple. Also figurative. Occasionally with up. In quot. ?a1475: spec. to provide (a text) with rubrics, or red lettering.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > colour > named colours > purple or purpleness > turning purple > make purple [verb (transitive)]
purple?a1475
corkc1485
impurpure1554
bepurple1582
empurple1590
violet1623
purpurize1632
purpurate1642
the world > matter > colour > named colours > red or redness > making or becoming red > make red [verb (transitive)] > with dye, stain, or pigment
purple?a1475
ruddle1538
bloody1590
sanguine1591
scutchanele1596
vermeil1596
vermilion1606
gule1609
incarnadinea1616
raddle1631
vermilion1656
bow-dyea1658
reddle1663
miniate1670
rud1680
tiver1792
red-ochre1805
roucou1817
vermilionize1854
red-lead1871
?a1475 (?a1425) tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Harl. 2261) (1865) I. 41 In so moche that y schalle purpulle [a1387 J. Trevisa translation ‘schal hiȝte’; Latin purpurabo] the mariantes nye the hedes of þe gestes with a dowble ordre of yeres.
1565 T. Drant Impii Cuiusdam Epigrammatis sig. d iv Alack with bloud of barons bold how purpled was thy soyle.
1592 R. Greene Quip for Vpstart Courtier sig. C2v A nose..purpled pretiously with pearle and stone, like a counterseit worke.
a1653 Z. Boyd Zion's Flowers (1855) 138 Blood did purple ov'r the grasse.
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost vii. 30 Yet not alone, while thou Visit'st my slumbers Nightly, or when Morn Purples the East. View more context for this quotation
1725 R. Bradley Chomel's Dictionaire Œconomique at Lily The Flowers..are..crooked, purpled, and pink'd with certain red Spots, they smell sweatly and please the Sight.
1783 J. O. Justamond tr. G. T. F. Raynal Philos. Hist. Europeans in Indies (new ed.) I. 395 Was it then to be reserved for this ignominy, that we purpled the seas with our blood?
1831 J. Wilson Unimore vi. 5 The heather bloom..purples..The Moors and Mountains.
1863 S. Baring-Gould Iceland 214 A hill purpled with wood cranesbill.
1929 M. Redgrave in Granta 7 June The vegetation became dense and of tropical behaviour, purpling the air with wild fruits and flowers.
1968 Daily Times-News (Burlington, N. Carolina) 11 July a4/2 Since most squires held court solely by ear, the young lawyer purpled up his oratory.
1991 R. S. Jones Force of Gravity (1992) i. ix. 84 He could see across the river to the city on the other side: the lit buildings, the neon purpling the horizon above the highway.
2. intransitive. To become purple.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > colour > named colours > purple or purpleness > turning purple > become purple [verb (intransitive)]
purple1608
1608 G. Chapman Conspiracie Duke of Byron iii. sig. E3v My spirrit as yet, but stooping to his rest, Shines hotly in him, as the Sunne in clowds, Purpled, and made proud with a peacefull Euen.
1785 T. Dwight Conquest of Canäan x. 240 The vine, glad offspring of the sun, aspires, And smiles, and purples, in th' indulgent fires.
1816 Ld. Byron Siege of Corinth i. 7 The land-mark to the double tide That purpling rolls on either side.
1893 E. H. Barker Wanderings by S. Waters 87 It purpled and died away in grayness and mournful shadow.
1946 E. Waugh Diaries (1979) 647 Duff swelled, purpled, and recited for twenty minutes Sordello.
1970 V. Canning Great Affair vi. 100 Fig trees on which the fruits were beginning to purple.
1992 Glimmer Train No. 1. 15 Edmund choked on his stew. He clutched his throat and his face purpled.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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