purple

This lovely color, which the American Heritage Dictionary describes as “a hue between violet and red,” was “once a symbol of royalty or high office.” After our class discussion on turtur and turtle, I wondered if purple might have traveled a similar path, bearing in mind that there is a modern German word Purpur, meaning “velvet.” The AHD states that this word came from the Greek porphura, a shellfish yielding purple dye. The Greek word made its way into Latin as purpura, “purple,” and became purpure in Old English, meaning “purple garment.” This later morphed into purpul, and was bequeathed to modern English via Middle English. As for the similarity to German, it seems plausible that Purpur came from the same Greek/Latin stream. In English, the meaning of purple has retained its association with color, whereas the German word-sibling is still related to textiles. It would seem that the historical meaning diverged such that (at least) these two modern languages carry one half of an antiquated definition. The mollusk connection, however, has been cast to the sea.