As the editors of the AND work their way towards the end of
the revision of the letter ‘P’, one of the entries being rewritten is that of
the colour purpre, that is, ‘purple’[1].
Defining what that means is trickier than it first appears, as is often the
case with colour words. Is purple a colour in the pink/red family or is it a
shade of blue? To further complicate matters, there are in fact numerous words
used in Anglo-Norman to refer to different shades of purple, some of which we’ll
look at here.
Purpre derives from the
Latin purpura [DMLBS 2584c], and
doesn’t refer always to the colour we now know as purple. Originally, the term
referred to the shade of dye obtained from a sea snail, which was a variable
crimson or reddish shade, which is also known as Tyrian purple. The blue-purple
colour found in medieval manuscripts is often plant based, normally from the
plant known as turnsole though this colour was also created using a variety of
other plants and berries.[2]
The first edition of the AND only lists one citation using
the word as a colour adjective, implying that its sense was evident. This will certainly
be remedied by the current revision, and the new entry will give a better idea
of the scope of the use of the adjective. As a substantive purpre is used in Anglo-Norman to refer to the colour as well as,
specifically, to purple cloth, often in reference to imperial robes. Purple
cloth and dye were particularly costly and became associated, from Roman times,
with the emperor, the pope and royalty.
 |
| BL Add. 4255 f.17 Image of emperor Vespasian |
Purpre was also used to
designate the purple colour used in heraldry, a term that continues in use
today in English in the form purpure. The colour was used, for example, by Henry de Lacy, 3rd Earl of Lincoln on his arms
as described in the Falkirk Roll:
Henry de Lacy, counte de Nichole, chevetaigne de la premier
bataille, porte d’or ou ung leoun rampaund de purpure Eight Rolls 86.1
(Henry de Lacy, count of
Lincoln, knight of the first battle, carries or, a lion rampant purpure.)
These arms would be incorporated into those of Lincoln’s Inn,
one of the four Inns of Court in London.
There are a number of derivations of the word purple in the
AND. Purprin is used with the
meaning ‘crimson, purple’ and as a noun refer to a type of cloth. We also find
the related purprie, meaning
‘purple’ (which should perhaps be read as purpri[n]e?)
and purprine, a type of cloth of that
colour. We also have the related enpurpuré,
meaning ‘made purple’. Purpurine was also borrowed into Middle English and was used to refer to things
of a purple or scarlet colour, frequently in relation to cloth. Empurpled is equally used
in English but is a post-medieval creation.
An unusual variant is the form furfuré, which is only attested once in an interesting
Anglo-Norman glossary of Arabic words from the beginning of the fourteenth
century:
Anagales, che est une
herbe qui a .ij. flours, l'une a color rouge & l'autre furfuree Glossario arabo-francese 367.53
(Anagales [i.e. pimpernel,
Anagallis], this is an herb which has two flowers, one red and one purple.)
We also have a single attestation for the word purpuresse, meaning a woman who sells
purple cloth or dye. This word seems to have been created specifically in
reference to St Lydia of Thyatira in medieval biblical translations of Acts
16:14-15, as we see it used below in the Anglo-Norman Bible, and in equivalent
passages in English translations (see the OED purpuress).
une purpuresse de la citee des
Thiathiriens Actes 369va
(A purple-dye seller of the city of the Thyatirans)
 |
| BL Add. 42160 f.152v showing a naked purple man |
Purpre isn’t the only
term you can use to refer to the colour in Anglo-Norman. We have the entry violet , which, however, currently doesn't list any attestations in reference to the colour rather than the plant from which the colour derives
its name. This is surprising as the term violet is used in Middle English by the fourteenth century in reference
to this colour. It is likely we will add this to the dictionary when we come to
the revision of ‘V’! The colour is however attested in the entry for viole:
amatiste, ke est [...] de culur medlee [...] De viole
e de rose Apoc 4238
(amethyst, which is of a
mixed colour, of violet and pink)
The word garance referred to the shade obtained by madder dye, a deep reddish purple, though our
citations show that this was considered closer to red than purple as it glossed
the Latin rubea, and was synonymous
with ruge (red) and vermeil (vermilion):
rubea: de varence, de vermayl, ruge TLL 136
The words inde and yndois refer to the colour obtained by
the use of indigo, generally a purplish-blue colour. This appears to have been
a colour distinct both from azur (‘blue,
azure’) and from purpre.
et ad le col tout jaune de la colour d’un oriel bien
luisant, et le dos de ynde, et les aeles de porpre colour Mandeville 151
(and it (the
phoenix) had a completely yellow neck,
the colour of a shining oriole and an indigo back and wings of a purple colour)
Jacintin is also used to
refer to a purplish colour, in metonymy with the reddish blue, or purple colour
of the hyacinth. English jacinth also referred to a blue-coloured stone, though in modern usage, it
refers to an orange gemstone. The Anglo-Norman context does not solve the
ambiguity as to which colour the term refers to:
Le prince de prestres bien aparaillez, En l'estole
jacintine Rom Chev ANTS 3843
(The prince of priests,
well dressed in a jacinth-coloured stole)
We also find several uses of terms derived from the Gaelic
word for purple (corcur) in the AND. Cork or corkir is the English term used for a lichen from which one can derive a
reddish-purple dye, and appears as either cork
or jarecork in Anglo-Norman. It
appears side by side with another species of lichen used to dye fabric purple, orchil in English:
ascun tiel drap, le quel puis mesme le fest serra
tinctez oveqz orchel ou cork appellez jarecork Stats ii 487
(any such fabric, which once made will be dyed with
orchil or cork called jarcork)
 |
| BL Royal 16 E.II f.24v showing a purple decoration |
One final way to describe something purple in Anglo-Norman is
with the adjective muré, referring
to the reddish-purple colour of mulberries or mure. Once again this term can equally be found in English, as murrey, though it is used
primarily to refer to the colour in heraldic descriptions.
Pour une robe de samit rouge, pour une autre robe d'or
de Turquie en laquelle elle fu espousee, pour une autre robe de veluel gramsi,
pour un corset de tartais moret et pour une autre robe de tartais Isabella Inventory 520
(For a dress of red
samite, for another gold dress from Turkey in which she was married, for
another dress of crimson velvet, for a corset of mulberry tartarin and for
another tartarin robe)
'Colour' is one of the new semantic tags that has been added to
AND definitions during the present revision and later this year users will be
able to search by this tag to discover all the Anglo-Norman words for a variety
of colours. There are currently 180 colour words in the AND just waiting to be
discovered.
[HP]
[HP]
[1] While we now use the word purple
to describe the colour, the term purpure
is well attested in Middle English, as well as in Occitan, Catalan, Spanish,
Portuguese, Italian. Similar terms exist in the Germanic languages as well,
including Swedish, German and Dutch. See the etymological discussion in the OED
for the entries purpure and purple for a more developed discussion of the
dissimilation process which shifted the pronunciation of the word, in English,
from purpure to purple.
[2] For a description of Anglo-Norman colour recipes, see T. Hunt, 'Early Anglo-Norman receipts for colours', Journal of the Warburg and
Courtauld Institutes. 58 (1995), 203-209.
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