Word of the Day
Saturday December 1, 2012
empurple
em-PUR-puhl
verb:
1. To color or become purple or purplish.
2. To darken or redden; flush.
On one side are baby grapes whose petals yet fall; on another the clusters empurple towards full growth.
-- Homer, translated by T.E. Lawrence, The Odyssey
Magnificent weather, one of those sun risings that empurple landscapes, left the river all its limpid serenity.
-- Alexandre Dumas, The Man in the Iron Mask
Empurple originated in the late 1580s from the Greek prefix em- meaning 'to become' and the color 'purple,' a word of Tyrian descent for the shellfish from which purple dye was made.
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