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).^[1] 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)

(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)

References

^ “purpureal, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2007; “purpureal, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.