The word “purple” has a long and interesting history. To understand where it comes from, we need to go back thousands of years to examine the history of the color purple itself.
The History of the Color Purple
The earliest known use of the color purple dates back over 5,000 years to the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean. In these cultures, purple was associated with royalty, nobility, and high status. This is because purple dye was incredibly rare and expensive to produce.
Purple fabric used to be dyed with a pigment called Tyrian purple, which was made from the secretions of thousands of marine mollusks found in the Mediterranean Sea. It took an enormous amount of effort to harvest enough mollusks to produce dye, which is why only the wealthiest could afford purple clothes.
Because the dye was so costly to make, purple fabric became a status symbol. Royals and nobles wore purple as a sign of their rank and wealth. As a result, the color purple took on connotations of luxury, ambition, and extravagance.
The rarity and high value of purple dye lasted for centuries. It wasn’t until the mid-19th century that the first synthetic purple dye was created. This made the vibrant color much more accessible and affordable.
The Origins of the Word “Purple”
The word “purple” has its roots in the ancient Phoenician civilization. The Phoenicians were expert traders and dyers who had a monopoly on that precious Tyrian purple dye that was only afforded by the rich and royal.
The Phoenicians spoke a Semitic language, and their word for the color purple was “‘argamannu.” This word originated from “‘argaman,” the Phoenician name for the mollusks that they harvested for purple dye.
As the Phoenicians traded dyed purple fabrics around the Mediterranean, this word spread to other cultures and languages. The ancient Greeks adopted the word, calling the color “porphyra,” meaning “purple fish.” We get the scientific name of the purple mollusk, Murex purpureus, from this Greek word root.
From Greek, the word was later adopted into Latin as “purpura.” This Latin root gave rise to similar words in French (“pourpre”), Spanish (“purpura”), and eventually made its way into English as “purple.”
The Growth of the Word “Purple”
Although purple was revered in many ancient societies, the word “purple” was not commonly used in English until the 16th century. Even then, it was considered a high-class way to describe the color and was not widely understood among common people.
However, purple fabric had become more affordable during the Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries. As purple dye became cheaper to mass produce, purple clothing fell within the reach of the middle class. This slowly started to dilute the royal connotations of the color purple.
By the late 19th century, “purple” emerged as the standard term for the color in the English language. New words even emerged from it, like “purplish” and “purpleness.”
Today, the word “purple” has lost its royal undertones. We use it commonly to describe everything from a beautiful flower to a freshman’s college sweatshirt. However, English speakers will forever associate purple with extravagance and creativity, echoing purple’s opulent origins.
Conclusion
So where does the word “purple” come from? Its origins can be traced back thousands of years to the ancient Phoenician civilization. Their word for the rare, precious mollusk dye provided the root for similar words across Greek, Latin, and eventually English. Although royal purple fabric is now cheaply produced, the word still evokes a sense of richness and imagination in the English language.