murex
(ˈmjʊərɛks)
Pl. murices (ˈmjʊərɪsiːz), also murexes.
[a. L. mūrex (pl. mūricēs); prob. cogn. w. Gr. µύαξ (:—prehistoric *musak-) sea-mussel.]
A kind of shell-fish, the animal of which yields a purple dye.
| 1589 Greene Tullies Loue (1616) E 2 b, [Will] no color content your eye, but such as is stained by the fish Murex? 1698 M. Lister Journ. Paris (1699) 74 There were but few Shells; but amongst them there was a Murex which dies purple. 1757 Dyer Fleece ii. 599 He beheld The wounded murex strike a purple stain. 1851 Woodward Mollusca i. 106 The murices appear to form only one-third of a whirl annually. 1889 Westgarth Austral. Progr. 316 Spinous murexes went in basketfuls for a shilling. |
| attrib. 1605 B. Jonson Masque of Blackness, All hauing their lights burning out of whelks, or murex shells. |