different between crimson vs purple

English

Etymology

Late Middle English cremesyn, from obsolete French cramoisin or Old Spanish cremesin, from Arabic ???????? (qirmiz), from Persian ?????? (kirmist), from Middle Persian; see Proto-Indo-Iranian *k??miš. Cognate with Sanskrit ????? (k?mija). Doublet of kermes; also see carmine.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k??mz?n/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?k??mz?n/, /?k??ms?n/

Noun

crimson (countable and uncountable, plural crimsons) crimson on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

1. A deep, slightly bluish red.
   • 1904, Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Priory School” in The Return of Sherlock Holmes,^[1]

     To my horror I perceived that the yellow blossoms were all dabbled with crimson.

Translations

Adjective

crimson (comparative more crimson, superlative most crimson)

1. Having a deep red colour.

   • Breezes blowing from beds of iris quickened her breath with their perfume; she saw the tufted lilacs sway in the wind, and the streamers of mauve-tinted wistaria swinging, all a-glisten with golden bees; she saw a crimson cardinal winging through the foliage, and amorous tanagers flashing like scarlet flames athwart the pines.

   • 1950, Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast

     Her crimson dress inflames grey corridors, or flaring in a sunshaft through high branches makes of the deep green shadows a greenness darker yet, and a darkness greener.

2. Immodest. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Translations

Verb

crimson (third-person singular simple present crimsons, present participle crimsoning, simple past and past participle crimsoned)

1. (intransitive) To become crimson or deep red; to blush.
   • 1885, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “The Ring” in The Poetical Works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, New York and Boston: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., Volume 2, p. 662,^[2]

     Father. Why do you look so gravely at the tower?

     Miram. I never saw it yet so all ablaze

     With creepers crimsoning to the pinnacles,
2. (transitive) To dye with crimson or deep red; to redden.
   • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene 1,^[3]

     Here didst thou fall; and here thy hunters stand,

     Sign’d in thy spoil, and crimson’d in thy lethe.

   • 1811, Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, London: Macmillan, 1902, Chapter 28, p. 153,^[4]

     Her face was crimsoned over, and she exclaimed, in a voice of the greatest emotion, “Good God! Willoughby, what is the meaning of this? […] ”

   • 1936, William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom!, New York: Modern Library, 1951, Chapter 5, p. 138,^[5]

     […] that sheetless bed (that nuptial couch of love and grief) with the pale and bloody corpse in its patched and weathered gray crimsoning the bare mattress […]

Translations

Derived terms

• crimson lake

Related terms

• kermes
• carmine

See also

• (reds) red; blood red, brick red, burgundy, cardinal, carmine, carnation, cerise, cherry, cherry red, Chinese red, cinnabar, claret, crimson, damask, fire brick, fire engine red, flame, flamingo, fuchsia, garnet, geranium, gules, hot pink, incarnadine, Indian red, magenta, maroon, misty rose, nacarat, oxblood, pillar-box red, pink, Pompeian red, poppy, raspberry, red violet, rose, rouge, ruby, ruddy, salmon, sanguine, scarlet, shocking pink, stammel, strawberry, Turkey red, Venetian red, vermillion, vinaceous, vinous, violet red, wine ^{(Category: en:Reds)}

Further reading

• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.

Anagrams

• microns

English

Etymology

From Middle English purple, purpel, purpur, from Old English purple, purpuren (“purple”), taken from Latin purpura (“purple dye, shellfish”), from Ancient Greek ??????? (porphúra, “purple fish”), perhaps of Semitic origin. Cognate with Dutch purper (“purple”), German Purpur (“purple; crimson”), Gothic ???????????????????????????????? (paurpura, “purple”), Lithuanian purpurin? (“magenta”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?p??(?).p?l/
• (General American) enPR: pûrp?l, IPA^(key): /?p?p?l/
• Rhymes: -??(?)p?l

Noun

purple (plural purples)

1. A colour/color that is a dark blend of red and blue; dark magenta.
2. (colour theory) Any non-spectral colour on the line of purples on a colour chromaticity diagram or a colour wheel between violet and red.
3. Cloth, or a garment, dyed a purple colour; especially, a purple robe, worn as an emblem of rank or authority; specifically, the purple robe or mantle worn by Ancient Roman emperors as the emblem of imperial dignity.
4. (by extension) Imperial power, because the colour purple was worn by emperors and kings.
   • 1776-1788, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

     He was born in the purple.

   • 1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, I.29:

     The immediate successors of Augustus indulged in appalling cruelties towards senators and towards possible competitors for the purple.

5. Any of various species of mollusks from which Tyrian purple dye was obtained, especially the common dog whelk.
6. The purple haze cultivar of cannabis in the kush family, either pure or mixed with others, or by extension any variety of smoked marijuana.
   • 2005, Tipi Paul, Wanna Smoke?: The Adventures of a Storyteller, page 14

     "Sure, some purple Owlsley."

   • 2010, Mark Arax, West of the West, page 221

     “Purple smoke is no joke. Especially when it is real purple. The smell, taste, and high is easily one of the best in the world. One bowl of some purple Kush, and I'm done for a couple of hours.

   • 2011, Danielle Santiago, Allure of the Game, page 148

     She preferred to smoke some good purple, but getting high wasn't an option.

7. (medicine) Purpura.
8. Earcockle, a disease of wheat.
9. Any of the species of large butterflies, usually marked with purple or blue, of the genus Basilarchia (formerly Limenitis).

10. A cardinalate.
11. (slang, US) Ellipsis of purple drank

Translations

Adjective

purple (comparative purpler or more purple, superlative purplest or most purple)

1. Having a colour/color that is a dark blend of red and blue.

   Synonym: (literary, poetic) purpureal

   • So this was my future home, I thought! […] Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.

2. (US politics) Not predominantly red or blue, but having a mixture of Democrat and Republican support, as in purple state, purple city.
   • 2010, Hal K. Rothman, The Making of Modern Nevada, University of Nevada Press, ?ISBN, page 162:

     In the end, Nevada remained the quintessential purple state. On the maps that television used to illustrate political trends, Republican states were red and Democratic blue. Nevada blended the colors. It had a bright blue core in the heart of Las Vegas, surrounded by a purple suburban belt. Most of the rest of the state was bright red, especially in the rural counties.

3. (in Netherlands and Belgium) Mixed between social democrats and liberals.
4. Imperial; regal.
5. Blood-red; bloody.
6. (of language) Extravagantly ornate, like purple prose.
7. (motor racing, of a sector, lap, etc.) Completed in the fastest time so far in a given session.

Antonyms

• (having purple as its colour): nonpurple

Translations

Verb

purple (third-person singular simple present purples, present participle purpling, simple past and past participle purpled)

1. (intransitive) To turn purple in colour.
   • 1999, David Edelstein, In Nomine: Corporeal Player's Guide, Steve Jackson Games, ?ISBN, page 8:

     The gang leader purpled and raised his gun.

2. (transitive) To dye purple.
3. (transitive) To clothe in purple.

Derived terms

See also

• purpure
• rhodopsin
• secondary color

Anagrams

• Ruppel, lupper, pulper, repulp

Middle English

Noun

purple (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of purpel

Adjective

purple

1. Alternative form of purpel