purple

¹pur·ple

adj \ˈpər-pəl\

pur·pler\-p(ə-)lər\pur·plest\-p(ə-)ləst\

Definition of PURPLE

1

: regal, imperial

2

: of the color purple

3

a : highly rhetorical : ornate b : marked by profanity

Examples of PURPLE

1. The book contains a few purple passages.
2. Her writing was full of purple prose.

Origin of PURPLE

Middle English purpel, alteration of purper, from Old English purpuran of purple, genitive of purpure purple color, from Latin purpura, from Greek porphyra

First Known Use: before 12th century

Related to PURPLE

Synonyms: aureate, florid, grandiloquent, highfalutin (also hifalutin), high-flown, high-sounding, magnific, ornate, flowery, rhetorical (also rhetoric)

Related Words: affected, bloated, fancy-pants, grandiose, inflated, pompous, pretentious, stilted; excessive, flattering, fulsome; boastful, bombastic; elevated, eloquent, lofty; bookish, inkhorn, learned

Near Antonyms: prosaic, unpoetic; bald, direct, lean, matter-of-fact, plain, plainspoken, simple, spare, stark, straightforward, unadorned; natural, unaffected, unpretentious

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Other Color Terms

argentine, cerise, cerulean, cyan, ocher, perse, puce, taupe, vermilion