different between purgatory vs purge

English

Etymology

From Latin purg?t?rium (“cleansing”). Cognate to English purge.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?p????t??i/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?p????t?i/
• US: pur?ga?to?ry
• UK: pur?ga?tory

Noun

purgatory (countable and uncountable, plural purgatories)

1. (Christianity) Alternative letter-case form of Purgatory
2. Any situation where suffering is endured, particularly as part of a process of redemption.
   • 1605, Nicholas Breton, An Olde Mans Lesson, and a Young Mans Loue, London: Edward White,^[1]

     […] many Gods breedeth heathens miseries, many countries trauailers humors, many wiues mens purgatories, and many friends trustes ruine:

   • 1774, John Burgoyne, The Maid of the Oaks, London: T. Becket, Act I, Scene 1, p. 6,^[2]

     I laid my rank and fortune at the fair one’s feet, and would have married instantly; but that Oldworth opposed my precipitancy, and insisted upon a probation of six months absence—It has been a purgatory!

   • 1853, Elizabeth Gaskell, Ruth, Chapter 25,^[3]

     It might be […] that Ruth had worked her way through the deep purgatory of repentance up to something like purity again; God only knew!

   • 1904, Upton Sinclair, The Jungle, Chapter 10,^[4]

     Later came midsummer, with the stifling heat, when the dingy killing beds of Durham’s became a very purgatory; one time, in a single day, three men fell dead from sunstroke.

   • 1997, J. M. Coetzee, Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life, Penguin, Chapter 11, p. 100,^[5]

     […] that would mean he would be irrecoverably Afrikaans and would have to spend years in the purgatory of an Afrikaans boarding-school, as all farm-children do, before he would be allowed to come back to the farm.

Related terms

Translations

Adjective

purgatory (comparative more purgatory, superlative most purgatory)

1. Tending to cleanse; expiatory.
   • 1600, Philemon Holland (translator), The Roman Historie Written by T. Livius of Padua, London, Book 41, p. 1103,^[6]

     Last of all, the prodigie of Siracusa was expiat by a purgatory sacrifice, by direction from the soothsaiers to what gods, supplications and sacrifice should be made.

   • 1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, London: J. Dodsley, p. 272,^[7]

     This purgatory interval is not unfavourable to a faithless representative, who may be as good a canvasser as he was a bad governor.

See also

• heaven
• hell
• limbo
• gehenna

English

Etymology

From Middle English purgen, from Old French purgier, from Latin p?rg? (“I make pure, I cleanse”), from p?rus (“clean, pure”) + ag? (“I make, I do”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /p?d?/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /p??d?/
• Rhymes: -??(?)d?

Noun

purge (plural purges)

1. An act of purging.
2. (medicine) An evacuation of the bowels or a vomiting.
3. A cleansing of pipes.
4. A forcible removal of people, for example, from political activity.

   Stalin liked to ensure that his purges were not reversible.

5. That which purges; especially, a medicine that evacuates the intestines; a cathartic.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Arbuthnot to this entry?)

Derived terms

• Great Purge

Related terms

Translations

Verb

purge (third-person singular simple present purges, present participle purging, simple past and past participle purged)

1. (transitive) To clean thoroughly; to cleanse; to rid of impurities.
2. (transitive, religion) to free from sin, guilt, or the burden or responsibility of misdeeds
3. (transitive) To remove by cleansing; to wash away.

   • Purge away our sins, for thy name's sake.

   • We'll join our cares to purge away / Our country's crimes.

4. (transitive, intransitive, medicine) To void or evacuate (the bowels or the stomach); to defecate or vomit.
5. (transitive, medicine) To cause someone to purge, operate on (somebody) as or with a cathartic or emetic, or in a similar manner.
   • 1979, Octavia Butler, Kindred:

     "What did they die of?" I asked.
     "Fevers. The doctor came and bled them and purged them, but they still died."
     "He bled and purged babies?"
     "They were two and three. He said it would break the fever. And it did. But they ... they died anyway."

6. (transitive, of a person) To forcibly remove, e.g., from political activity.

7. (transitive, of an organization, by extension) To forcibly remove people from.

8. (transitive, law) to clear of a charge, suspicion, or imputation
9. (transitive) To clarify; to clear the dregs from (liquor).
10. (intransitive) To become pure, as by clarification.
11. (intransitive) To have or produce frequent evacuations from the intestines, as by means of a cathartic.
12. (transitive) To trim, dress, or prune.

Translations

Anagrams

• Grupe, repug

French

Verb

purge

1. first-person singular present indicative of purger
2. third-person singular present indicative of purger
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of purger
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of purger
5. second-person singular imperative of purger

Norman

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

purge f (plural purges)

1. (Jersey) purgative