Purple

(pur'pl.) [From L. purpura.] A color, third and last of the secondaries, composed of five parts of red, and eight of blue. This color was anciently held in so high estimation that it became the symbolic hue of sovereignty:- whence the phrase to wear the purple. The famous P. of the Tyrians was procured from the animal juices of a shell-fish, the Murex trunculus. Purple-heart, or PURPLE-WOOD. See COPAIFERA. [s. 743]