purple

¹pur·ple

adjective \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

Other Color Terms

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

²purple

noun

Definition of PURPLE

1

a (1) : cloth dyed purple (2) : a garment of such color; especially : a purple robe worn as an emblem of rank or authority

b (1) : tyrian purple (2) : any of various colors that fall about midway between red and blue in hue

c (1) : a mollusk (as of the genus Purpura) yielding a purple dye and especially the Tyrian purple of ancient times (2) : a pigment or dye that colors purple

2

a : imperial or regal rank or power

b : high rank or station

First Known Use of PURPLE

15th century

Other Color Terms

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

³purple

verb

pur·pledpur·pling \-p(ə-)liŋ\

Definition of PURPLE

transitive verb

: to make purple

intransitive verb

: to become purple

First Known Use of PURPLE

15th century