Opinion | Purple reign: how colour owes its name to sea snails, and why it became associated with grandeur
The word “purple”, spelled purpel in Middle English, from purpul in Old English, was first recorded in Northumbrian, in the Lindisfarne Gospels. This involved a dissimilation (changing one of two identical sounds to a different, similar one) of purpure, borrowed from the Latin purpura in the ninth century, coming from the Greek porphyra, which most … Read more
