O.E.
purpul, dissimilation (first recorded in Northumbrian, in Lindisfarne gospel) from
purpure "purple garment,"
purpuren "purple," from L.
purpura "purple-dyed cloak, purple dye," also "shellfish from which purple was made," from Gk.
porphyra (see
porphyry), of Semitic origin, originally the name for the shellfish (
murex) from which it was obtained.
Tyrian purple, produced around Tyre, was prized as dye for royal garments. As a color name, attested from 1398. Also the color of mourning or penitence (especially in royalty or clergy). Rhetorical for "splendid, gaudy" (of prose) from 1598.
Purpur continued as a parallel form until 15c., and through 19c. in heraldry.
Purple Heart, U.S. decoration for service members wounded in combat, instituted 1932; originally a cloth decoration begun by George Washington in 1782. Hendrix'
Purple Haze (1967) is slang for "LSD."