purple

== English == === Etymology === From Middle English purple, purpel, from Old English purpul (“purple”, adjective), taken from Old English purpure (“purple colour”, noun), from Latin purpura (“purple dye, shellfish”), from Ancient Greek πορφύρα (porphúra, “purple-fish”), perhaps of Semitic origin. Doublet of purpura and purpure. The sense of "imperial power" is from the wearing of the color purple by emperors and kings. === Pronunciation === (Received Pronunciation, General Australian) IPA(key): /ˈpɜː.pl̩/ (General American) IPA(key): /ˈpɝ.pl̩/ (New Zealand, Wales) IPA(key): /ˈpøːpl̩/ (Scotland) IPA(key): /pʌɾpl̩/ (Liverpool, fair–fur merger) IPA(key): /peːpl̩/ (Humberside, Teesside, fair–fur merger) IPA(key): /pɛːpl̩/ Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)pəl === Noun === purple (countable and uncountable, plural purples) A colour between red and blue; violet, though often closer to magenta. Synonym: blue-red (colour theory) Any non-spectral colour on the line of purples on a colour chromaticity diagram or a colour wheel between violet and red. Cloth, or a garment, dyed a purple colour; especially, a purple robe, worn as an emblem of rank or authority; specifically, the purple robe or mantle worn by Ancient Roman emperors as the emblem of imperial dignity. (by extension) Imperial power. 1776-1788, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire He was born in the purple. Any of various species of mollusks from which Tyrian purple dye was obtained, especially the common dog whelk. The purple haze cultivar of cannabis in the kush family, either pure or mixed with others, or by extension any variety of smoked marijuana. (medicine) Purpura. Earcockle, a disease of wheat. Any of the species of large butterflies, usually marked with purple or blue, of the genus Basilarchia (formerly Limenitis). A cardinalate. (slang, US) Ellipsis of purple drank. (UK, slang) Synonym of snakebite and black. ==== Translations ==== === Adjective === purple (comparative purpler or more purple, superlative purplest or most purple) Of a purple hue. Synonym: (literary, poetic) purpureal (US politics) Not predominantly red or blue, but having a mixture of Democrat and Republican support. (Belgium, Netherlands) Mixed between social democrats and liberals. Imperial; regal. Blood-red; bloody. (literature) Of language, extravagantly ornate, like purple prose. Near-synonyms: flowery, overwrought (motor racing) Of a sector, lap, etc., completed in the fastest time so far in a given session. ==== Antonyms ==== (antonym(s) of “having purple as its colour”): nonpurple ==== Translations ==== === Verb === purple (third-person singular simple present purples, present participle purpling, simple past and past participle purpled) (intransitive) To turn purple in colour. (transitive) To dye purple. (transitive) To clothe in purple. === Derived terms === === See also === === References === “purple”, in OneLook Dictionary Search. === Anagrams === Ruppel, lupper, pulper, repulp == Middle English == === Noun === purple alternative form of purpel === Adjective === purple alternative form of purpel == Old English == === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /ˈpur.ple/, [ˈpurˠ.ple] === Adjective === purple inflection of purpul: strong accusative feminine singular strong instrumental masculine/neuter singular strong nominative/accusative masculine/feminine plural weak nominative feminine/neuter singular weak accusative neuter singular