purpureal

English

WOTD – 25 October 2020

Etymology

From Latin purpureus (“purple, violet; brown, reddish; clothed in purple; (figurative) brilliant, shining; beautiful”) + English -al (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives). Purpureus is either derived:

• from purpura (“the colour purple; purple-fish (Hexaplex trunculus)”) (from Ancient Greek πορφῠ́ρᾱ (porphúrā, “purple-fish; purple dye obtained from it; purple-dyed cloth; purple stripe or other adornment of a garment”), from πορφύρω (porphúrō, “to redden”)) + -eus (suffix forming adjectives from nouns); or
• from Ancient Greek πορφύρεος (porphúreos, “of a purple colour”), from πορφῠ́ρᾱ (porphúrā) (see above) + -εος (-eos).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pɜːˈpjʊə.ɹɪ.əl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /pɝˈp(j)ʊ.ɹi.əl/
• Hyphenation: pur‧pu‧re‧al

Adjective

purpureal (comparative more purpureal, superlative most purpureal)

1. (literary, poetic) Of a purple colour.

   Synonyms: purple, (obsolete) purpuraceous, (archaic, poetic) purpurate, (obsolete) purpure, (obsolete) purpurean, purpureous, (rare) purpurine

   • 1744, [Mark Akenside], “Book the First”, in The Pleasures of Imagination. A Poem. In Three Books, London: […] R[obert] Dodsley […], →OCLC, page 16, lines 296–298:

     [G]liding thro' his daughter's honour'd ſhades, / The ſmooth Penéus from his glaſſy flood / Reflects purpureal Tempe's pleaſant ſcene?

   • 1813, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Canto I”, in Queen Mab; […], London: […] P. B. Shelley, […], →OCLC, page 6:

     [T]he fair star / That gems the glittering coronet of morn, / Sheds not a light so mild, so powerful, / As that which, bursting from the Fairy's form, / Spread a purpureal halo round the scene, / Yet with an undulating motion, / Swayed to her outline gracefully.

   • 1815, William Wordsworth, “Laodamia”, in Poems […], volume I, London: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […], →OCLC, page 229:

     Of all that is most beauteous—imaged there / In happier beauty; more pellucid streams, / An ampler ether, a diviner air, / And fields invested with purpureal gleams; [...]

   • 1893, Francis Thompson, “The Hound of Heaven”, in The Works of Francis Thompson, volume I (Poems), New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons […], published 1913, →OCLC, page 112:

     But not ere him who summoneth / I first have seen, enwound / With glooming robes purpureal, cypress-crowned; [...]

   • 1973, Derek Walcott, “[Homage to Gregorias] Chapter 10”, in Another Life, New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN, page 63:

     Above the altar-lace / he mounted a triptych of the Assumption / with coarse, purpureal clouds, a prescient Madonna / drawn from Leonardo's "Our Lady of the Rocks."

Related terms

• purple
• purply
• purpura
• purpuraceous (obsolete)
• purpurare (obsolete)
• purpurascent, purpurescent
• purpurate
• purpurated (obsolete)
• purpurean (obsolete)
• purpured (obsolete)
• purpurein
• purpureous
• purpureously (obsolete, rare)
• purpure (some senses obsolete)
• purpuress (obsolete)
• purpuric
• purpuriferous (obsolete)
• purpurin
• purpurine (rare)
• purpuriparous (obsolete, rare)
• purpurisse (historical, rare)
• purpurissum (historical)
• purpurite
• purpurize (obsolete)
• purpurogallin
• purpuroid
• purpurous (obsolete)

 

Translations

(literary, poetic) of a purple colour — see also purple

• French: violâtre (fr)

Further reading

• purple on Wikipedia.Wikipedia