purpur Obs., purpure, n. and a. arch.
(ˈpɜːpjʊə(r))
Forms: see below.
[In OE. purpure, -an (weak fem.), ad. L. purpura n. fem.; thence in early ME. purpre, coinciding with OF. purpre (porpre, later pourpre = Pr. porpra, polpra, It. porpora:—L. purpura, whence learned F. purpure); also in ME. purper, purpur, and in 14th c. purpure, orig. with -e otiose, but at length associated with the suffix -ure, which has attracted various endings, as in moisture, pleasure, vulture. Cf. OHG. purpura, ON. purpuri, Goth. paurpaura, -pura, all from L.; thence MHG., MLG., Du. purper, Ger., Da., Sw. purpur. L. purpura was an early ad. Gr. πορϕύρα name of the shell-fish or whelk which yielded the Tyrian purple, hence the purple dye, and cloth dyed with it. The last is the earliest sense in Eng. (Cf. also porphyry.)
OE. purpure was only a n., the adj. or attrib. use being expressed by its genitive purpuran, or later by a deriv. adj. purpuren: cf. OHG. purpurîn in Otfrid. The wearing down of either of these gave the 12th c. purpre and ONorthumb. purple, as attrib. and, at length, adj. forms. A similar phenomenon appeared in OHG. in the tendency to treat the genitive purpurûn as an adj.]
A. Illustration of Forms.
(α) 1 purpure, -an, 2 purpre, -en.
| c 893 K. ælfred Oros. vi. xxx. §3 Hie woldon..þa purpuran alecgan þa hie weredon. c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Mark xv. 17 Hi..scryddon hine mid purpuran [c 1160 Hatton G. purpren]. |
(β) 3 pl. purpras, 3–6 purpre, 3–5 pl. -es, 4 porpre, 4–5 pourpre.
| c 1205 Lay. 2368, & claðes inowe pælles & purpras [c 1275 purpres]. Ibid. 5928 Þa palles & þa purpres. a 1225 Juliana 8 Wið purpre wið pal. 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 1568 Ful gaye in gounes of porpre. 1340 Ayenb. 229 Hi ham cloþeþ..mid pourpre and mid uayre robes. c 1440 Gesta Rom. xii. 38 (Harl. MS.) Y-clothid alle in purpre & bisse. 1483 Caxton Gold. Leg. 169 b/1 In roobes of pourpre. 1605 [see B. II. 1]. |
(γ) 4–5 purper, -pir(e, porpere, 5 purpere, -pyr(e.
| a 1340 Hampole Psalter xliv. 11 Þis quene is atirid wiþ.. purpire. 13.. Cursor M. 25465 (Cott.), Ne purperpall, nee pride o pane. c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W. 654 (Gg. 4. 27), Fleth ek the queen withal hire porpere [v.rr. purpre, purpyr, purpur] sayl. 1478 Botoner Itin. (1778) 88 Cum tribus robis de purpyre. 1488 Inv. in Tytler's Hist. Scot. (1864) ii. 393 Item a covering of variand purpir tarter. |
(δ) 4–7 purpur, (4 -powr, 4–5 porpor, 5–6 purpour, -e, pourpour, -e, 6 Sc. purpoir).
| 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 1743 Þenne sone was danyel dubbed in ful dere porpor. 1382 Wyclif John xix. 5 A clooth of purpur. c 1420 Purpour [see B. I. 1]. 1567 Gude & Godlie B. 40 Cled With purpour silk. 1649 J. Ellistone tr. Behmen Ep. i. 29 Cloathed with Christs Purpur-Mantle. |
(ε) 4– purpure.
| c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints xxiii. (VII Sleperis) 192 Þis gud emperoure [Theodosius]..putand a-way purpure & chare. ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 1288 Palaisez proudliche pyghte, þat palyd ware ryche, Of palle and of purpure. 1494–1894: see B. |
B. Signification. I. n.
† 1. Purple cloth or clothing; in earliest use, a purple robe or garment; spec. as the dress of an emperor or king; = purple n. 2. Obs.
purpur (purple) and pall, also † pall and purpur, a favourite alliterative collocation (see also in A.), which prob. arose when pall, OE. pæll, began to lose the spec. sense of ‘purple cloth’, and to be used in the more general sense of ‘rich clothing’: see pall n. 1. Cf. also the variation purper pall: quot. 13.. in A. γ.
| c 893 K. ælfred Oros. iv. iv. §4 Hit næs þeaw mid him þæt æniᵹ oþer purpuran werede buton cyningum. c 1205 Pælles & purpras [see A. β]. a 1225 Leg. Kath. 1461 Ischrud & iprud ba wið pel & wið purpre. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 4744 Desgysede in pourpre & bys. c 1375 [see A. ε]. 1382 Wyclif Luke xvi. 19 Sum man was rich, and was clothid in purpur. c 1420 ? Lydg. Assembly of Gods 306 Clad all in purpur was she more & lesse. c 1420 Anturs of Arth. 443 With purpour and palle. 1494 Fabyan Chron. iv. lxiii. 42 This Caraucius had taken vpon hym to were the purpure. 1513 Douglas æneis i. xi. 14 Ourspred with carpetis of the fyne purpour. 1614 Barclay Nepenthes (Arb.) 116 When in a robe of purpure I wedded the metamorphosed Daphne. |
† 2. The mollusc whence the purple dye was obtained; = purple n. 3. Obs.
(The original sense of the word in Gr. and L.)
| c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. iii. met. viii. (Camb. MS.) 64 Men..knowen whych water habowndeth most of Rede purpre, þat is..of a manere shelle fysh with whych men dyen purpre. |
† 3. A deep crimson or scarlet colour; = purple n. 1. Obs.
| c 1380 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. II. 125 So Jesus..baar a crowne of þornes, and cloiþ of purpur. 1489 Caxton Faytes of A. iv. xvii. 280 Purpre that we calle red representeth the fire the moost noble of all iiii elementes. 1496 Dives & Pauper Comm. viii. viii. 331/2 The chesyble betokeneth the cloth of purpure in whiche the knyghtes clothed hym in scorne. |
b. Her. Purple as a colour or tincture; in engraving represented by diagonal lines from sinister to dexter.
| 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. (1856) I. 585 With baneris braid, and standertis in the air, Palit with purpoir, plesand and preclair. 1562 Leigh Armorie 17 b, The whiche colour in armes, is Purple, and is blazed by this word Purpure, which is a princelye colour. 1704 J. Harris Lex. Techn. I, Purpure, the Heralds Term for a Colour consisting of much Red and a little Black. 1894 Parker's Gloss. Herald., Purpure..this colour, as it is considered by some, but tincture as it is allowed to be by others, is found but rarely in early rolls of arms. |
II. adj.
† 1. = purple a. 2: often as the distinctive colour of imperial and royal dress; = purple a. 1. Obs.
| [c 1160 Hatton Gosp. John xix. 5 Purpre reaf [Ags. Gosp. purpuren reaf].] |
| 13.. E.E. Allit. P. A. 1016 Þe amatyst purpre with ynde blente. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints ix. (Bertholom.) 56 Sete with stanis of purpure hew. c 1470 Henryson Mor. Fab., Preich. Swallow 33 Thir Iolie flouris,..Sum grene, sum blew, sum purpour, quhyte & red. 1509–10 Act 1 Hen. VIII, c. 14 Sylke of Purpoure Coloure. 1605 Camden Rem. 84 Those birdes with purpre [edd. 1623–9 purple, 1657 purpure] neckes called Penelopes. c 1614 Sir W. Mure Dido & æneas ii. 19 With purpure blush, soone as the morne displayes Heaven's cristall gates. |
† b. Qualifying another adj. of colour. Obs.
| c 1470 Henryson Mor. Fab., Lion & Mouse Prol. v, His chemeis was of chambelet pourpour broun. 1503 Acc. Ld. H. Treas. Scot. II. 209 For x elne wellus purpur violet. |
2. Her. Of the colour called purpure: see I. 3 b.
| 1562 Leigh Armorie (1597) 84 b, He beareth Purpure on a pale Sable, three imperial crownes, Or. 1799 Naval Chron. I. 393 Two eagles, purpure, beaked. 1864 Boutell Her. Hist. & Pop. (ed. 3) xiv. §i. 153 Sometimes blazoned purpure instead of gules. |