Purple
The modern English word purple traces its lineage back to the Old English term purpul. This word derives from Latin purpura, which in turn comes from the Greek word porphura. The Greek name referred specifically to Tyrian purple dye manufactured in classical antiquity. This dye came from a mucus secreted by the spiny dye-murex snail. The first recorded use of the word purple dates to the late 900s AD. Ancient artists used sticks of manganese and hematite powder to create early purple hues. These Neolithic works appeared between 16,000 and 25,000 BC at sites like Pech Merle cave in France. The earliest known purple textiles date back to the early second millennium BCE. They were found in Syria within burial sites at Chagar Bazar. Preserved samples also existed in gypsum at the Royal Palace of Qatna.
As early as the 15th century BC citizens of Sidon and Tyre produced purple dye from sea snails. Thousands of tiny snails had to be found for each batch of dye. Workers cracked their shells and removed the snail itself. A tiny gland was extracted and placed into a basin under sunlight. The juice underwent a remarkable transformation during this process. It turned white then yellow-green before becoming green. Finally it shifted to violet and then red which grew darker and darker. Workers stopped the process at exactly the right moment to achieve the desired color. The final hue ranged from bright crimson to dark purple resembling dried blood. Mountains of empty shells have been discovered at ancient sites like Sidon and Tyre. This labor-intensive method made the dye extremely expensive in antiquity. In 2008 German chemist Paul Friedander needed twelve thousand mollusks to create just 1.4 ounces of dye. That amount was enough to color only a single handkerchief. A gram of Tyrian purple made from ten thousand mollusks cost two thousand euros in the year 2000.
Tyrian purple became the color worn by kings nobles priests and magistrates across the Mediterranean. Roman custom involved wearing purple togas possibly derived from Etruscan traditions. An Etruscan tomb painting from the 4th century BC shows a nobleman in deep purple. The Toga praetexta featured a broad purple stripe on an ordinary white toga. Freeborn Roman boys who had not yet come of age wore this garment. Curule magistrates and certain categories of priests also wore it. The Toga picta was solid purple embroidered with gold. During the Roman Republic generals wore entirely purple togas bordered in gold during triumphs. Senators wore togas with purple stripes. By the late empire the sale of purple cloth became a state monopoly protected by death penalties. Suetius claims early emperor Caligula murdered the King of Mauretania for his splendid purple cloak. Nero forbade the use of certain purple dyes. In ancient China purple gromwell provided a different source of color. Duke Huan of Qi developed a preference for purple fabric making its price over five times that of plain material. His minister Guan Zhong eventually convinced him to relinquish this preference. In the Byzantine Empire emperors born in the Purple Chamber were known as born to the purple.
In 1856 an eighteen-year-old British chemistry student named William Henry Perkin tried to make synthetic quinine. His experiments produced instead the first synthetic aniline dye called mauveine. It took its name from the mallow flower which shares the same color. Queen Victoria wore a silk gown dyed with mauveine to the Royal Exhibition of 1862. This new color quickly became fashionable after her endorsement. Prior to Perkin's discovery only aristocracy and rich people could afford to wear mauve. He developed an industrial process and built a factory to produce the dye by the ton. Almost anyone could now wear mauve. It was the first of a series of modern industrial dyes transforming both the chemical industry and fashion. Cobalt violet became the first modern synthetic color in the purple family manufactured in 1859. Quinacridone violet one of a modern synthetic organic family was discovered in 1896 but not marketed until 1955. These colors range from deep red to bluish purple and have strong resistance to sunlight and washing.
According to some speakers of English purple unlike violet is not one of the colors of the visible spectrum. Isaac Newton did not identify it as one of the colors of the rainbow. Purple does not have its own wavelength of light for this reason it is sometimes called a non-spectral color. In the RGB color model used on computer screens or television ranges of purples are created by mixing red and blue light. The standard HTML color purple uses red and blue light of equal intensity at brightness between full power and darkness. Violet refers to any different single wavelength of light on the short wavelength end of the visible spectrum. This occurs between approximately 380 and 450 nanometers. On a chromaticity diagram the straight line connecting extreme spectral colors red and violet is known as the line of purples. It represents one limit of human color perception. Magenta used in CMYK printing sits near the center of this line. Most people associate the term purple with a somewhat bluer tone such as electric purple which lies directly on the line of purples.
Contemporary surveys in Europe and the United States show purple is the color most often associated with rarity royalty luxury ambition magic mystery piety and spirituality. When combined with pink it is associated with eroticism femininity and seduction. In Britain close relatives wore black for the first year following a death then replaced it with purple or dark green trimmed with black during Victorian times. Purple was the primary color used by many European and American political parties including Volt Europa and the UK Independence Party. Between 1994 and 2002 two Purple cabinets existed in the Netherlands led by Prime Minister Wim Kok. The British chocolate company Cadbury chose purple because it was Queen Victoria's favorite color. The company trademarked the color purple for chocolates with registrations in 1995 and 2004. In the United States politics a purple state typically refers to a swing state balanced between Republicans and Democrats. The National Basketball Association's Los Angeles Lakers use purple as their primary color. The Australian Football League's Fremantle Football Club uses purple as one of their primary colors. The official colors of the Wimbledon Championships are deep green and purple traditionally called mauve.
Common questions
What is the origin of the word purple?
The modern English word purple traces its lineage back to the Old English term purpul. This word derives from Latin purpura, which in turn comes from the Greek word porphura.
When did ancient artists first create purple hues?
Neolithic works appeared between 16,000 and 25,000 BC at sites like Pech Merle cave in France. Ancient artists used sticks of manganese and hematite powder to create these early purple hues.
How was Tyrian purple dye produced in antiquity?
Workers extracted a tiny gland from spiny dye-murex snails and placed it into a basin under sunlight. The juice underwent a transformation from white to yellow-green before becoming violet and finally red.
Who invented the first synthetic aniline dye called mauveine?
In 1856 an eighteen-year-old British chemistry student named William Henry Perkin tried to make synthetic quinine. His experiments produced instead the first synthetic aniline dye called mauveine.
Why does purple not have its own wavelength of light?
Purple does not have its own wavelength of light for this reason it is sometimes called a non-spectral color. Isaac Newton did not identify it as one of the colors of the rainbow.