ˈpurple-fish Now rare.
[f. purple n. + fish n.1]
A mollusc that yields a purple dye; = purple n. 3.
| 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Bozina, a trumpet,..a purple fish, Buccina, purpura, murex. 1601 Chester Love's Mart. lxxxii, The Purple-fish, whose liquor vsually, A violet colour on the cloth doth die. 1686 W. Cole Purpura Ang. (1689) 1 The Purple-Fish, which I found..on the Sea Coasts of Somerset-shire, and the shores of South-Wales opposite to it. 1820 W. Tooke tr. Lucian I. 454 note, The murex, a species of shellfish, called also the purple-fish. |