Purple Daze 2, Deeper into History

In "Purple Daze 1, Various Purply Names", I focused on various purply colors. I mentioned a "The Meanings of Purple" statement: "The earliest purple dyes date back to about 1900 B.C. It took some 12,000 shellfish to extract 1.5 grams of the pure dye - barely enough for dying a single garment the size of the Roman toga." This article dives deepter into purple history.

From "Purple Color: Meanings and Uses"

The color purple is synonymous with royalty. This mysterious color is associated with both nobility and spirituality.

Purple has a special, almost sacred place in nature: lavender, orchid, lilac and violet flowers are delicate. Because the color is derived from a mix of a strong warm and strong cool color, it has both warm and cool properties.

Deep or bright purples suggest riches, while lighter purples are more romantic, delicate and feminine. Use redder purples for a warm color scheme or the bluer purples for a cool scheme.

Crayola actually has a crayon named "orchid" (purple family). On the other hand, "The Amazing True History Of Orchids And What Their Colors Represent" contains a few non-purply orchid images that don't fit the Crayola model.

From "Why Is the Color Purple Associated With Royalty?"

The color purple has been associated with royalty, power and wealth for centuries. … Purple fabric used to be so outrageously expensive that only rulers could afford it. … it became associated with the imperial classes of Rome, Egypt, and Persia. Purple also came to represent spirituality and holiness because the ancient emperors, kings and queens that wore the color were often thought of as gods or descendents of the gods. …

In 1856, 18-year-old English chemist William Henry Perkin accidently created a synthetic purple compound while attempting to synthesize quinine, an anti-malaria drug . … he patented the dye and manufactured it under the name aniline purple and Tyrian purple, … The color's name was later changed to "mauve" in 1859, …

From "The Rich and Royal History of Purple, the Color of 2018", which includes similar historical information as "Why Is the Color Purple Associated With Royalty?". It also describes Pantene's color of the year for 2018.

The Pantone Color Institute, which helps makers of products select color for designs, announced this week that it chose to paint the coming year Ultra Violet, a purple-highlighter shade.

Leatrice Eiseman, the institute’s executive director, told The New York Times in an article in the Fashion and Style section published Thursday. “Because it takes two shades that are seemingly diametrically opposed — blue and red — and brings them together to create something new.”

About "ultraviolet": "The 2018 Pantone color of the year is definitely not purple" stresses "Pantone’s 2018 marquee color’s name is a misnomer. Ultraviolet is not a color that most humans can see because it’s outside the visible spectrum. … Only individuals with a condition called aphakia (the absence of eye lens) can perceive ultraviolet as a color."

More Purple Passion Links

Want more purple-themed resources, purple-possessed people?
"Purple Lives Here" claims "Over 1,100 purple items. We find the true purple items so you can trust it won't arrive pink or blue."

"All About The Color PURPLE" has exhaustive lists about purple, including sections for "COMPANIES OR BRANDS IDENTIFIED BY PURPLE" and "SONGS WITH PURPLE IN THE TITLE", purple WRT food (taste, sense of smell), and political and societal connotations. Chances are good if you've thought of a purple term, this site lists it.

Purple Daze 1, Various Purply Names

Occasionally, I kick around purple colors in my head. I've been dazed about them more than other colors pertaining to elementary school crayon colors, primary/secondary tempra colors from art class, and visible light colors. Purple seems a more dominant color name than violet, which Crayola uses, but with a nod to purple. "What were the original eight (8) colors in the 1903 box of Crayola Crayons?" lists the color as "violet (purple)".

My pixstrip shows purply clothing items (some with only smaller purply bits) and corresponding color snippets with lighter background. I wistfully thought about a couple of purply items I donated in the distant past.

Eye See Violet and Purple 

Hmmm, so what's the deal about the dodgy term "violet (purple)"? Are they the same color? Some resources explain:

"Difference between ‘violet’ and ‘purple’" (purple/violet contrast image at the author's article)

purple looks more “reddish” than violet … Purple is formed by mixing red and blue at a ratio close to 1:1, whereas violet is perceived by your eyes as containing more blue than red. … no spectral colour activates the “blue” path and the “red” path at the ratio of 1:1 without also stimulating the “green” path. In other words purple is not a spectral colour.

Purple is a mixture of red (which is at the opposite side of the spectrum than violet) and blue (which is relatively far from violet), so it is, in terms of wavelengths, a completely different colour.

"Violet and Purple Aren't The Same Thing"

When you see brown, you're seeing a mixture of light wavelengths that activate different cones in varying ratios to produce a color your brain finally interprets as brown.

Violet activates the blue and red cones—the blue cones a lot, the red cones a little less. Purple, on the other hand, hits your eyes in the same way our brown example did above. It's a combination of the spectral colors blue and red. Rather than activating blue and red cones in a given ratio, purple combines the cone ratio for blue with the cone ratio for red to come up with an entirely new color.

"Purple Color Meaning – The Color Purple"

The difference between violet and purple is that violet is displayed in the visible light spectrum, while purple is simply a mixture of red and blue. Violet vibrations are the highest in the visible spectrum. … violet is not quite as intense as purple

"Primary colors: The truth about purple"

Purple is a mixture of colors, like white. If you mix blue light and red light, your eye will see purple, but in reality, it’s just a mix of blue and red. … Scientifically, purple is not a color because there is no beam of pure light that looks purple. There is no light wavelength that corresponds to purple.

"The Meanings of Purple" is loaded with information; however, the absence of "violet" is somewhat suspicious. The article does link to a probably more technically correct explanation regarding visible wavelength, which is violet.

Purple is the most powerful visible wavelength of electromagnetic energy. It’s just a few steps away from x-rays and gamma rays. …

Variations of purple convey different meanings: Light purples are light-hearted, floral, and romantic. The dark shades are more intellectual and dignified. …

The earliest purple dyes date back to about 1900 B.C. It took some 12,000 shellfish to extract 1.5 grams of the pure dye - barely enough for dying a single garment the size of the Roman toga.

For more extensive information about purple history, read "Purple Daze 2, Deeper into History".

Loads of Various Purply Colors

Besides violet and purple having dazed me, I've also been befuddled by other purply terms, which I hesitate to label such-color items. Many of them pertain to flowers or fruit.

Lilac and lavender have confused me lots over the years. "Lavender vs. Lilac: What's the Difference?" contrasts these purply colors with pictures, a table, and descriptions. I thought about the song "Lavender Blue". Coincidentally, I ran across another similarly worded song that also mentions "lavender blue", "lavender green", "dilly, dilly", "king", and "queen".

Grape and plum are a couple of foods with purply colors. For grape flavors, such as ades, jellies, and jams, seems all grape colors are purple, excepting wines and juices ("white grape" somethings).

The oddest purply color I've encountered is "aubergine", associated with another food—eggplant. "Why Is It Called an Eggplant?" explains the color as well as the eggplant name itself.

There is actually a color — aubergine — that resembles the purple of the eggplant.

A long, gourd-shaped, purple fruit is what most people think of when they hear the word “eggplant." … way back in the 1700s, early European versions of eggplant were smaller and yellow or white. They looked a bit like goose or hen's eggs, which led to the name “eggplant."

I mentioned "mauve" earlier. Oddly, Merriam-Webster's entry for "mauve" shows differing definitions that seem non-committal:

a : a moderate purple, violet, or lilac color
b : a strong purple

Three Purply Colors in My Box of Crayola Crayons

I rooted around looking for my box of 64 Crayola crayons (with sharpener) to see what purples I have—"violet (purple)", "blue violet", and "plum". During the very elementary grades when receiving the 8-pack (BIG-size for indelicate handling). (Maybe I was too young to think of "violet" or the parenthetical purple, only remembering "purple" as the dominant term.) IMO, the wrappers and sticks look a lot closer to each other than the circular marks I'd made. The "violet (purple)" mark looks a lot more like the "plum" mark than the "blue-violet" mark.

A Blog Article with Three Mentions of Purple Regarding Spiderworts

Only about a week ago, a blog article mentioning some purply terms nudged me to firm up my theme about purple. From Steve Schwartzman's "Another white variant"—"white variant of a spiderwort, a wildflower that is normally purple or magenta or violet. Another purplish wildflower that occasionally shades to white is the bluebonnet".

Color N R Lives

Colors make their ways into many facets of our lives. They have strong associations with moods and emotions. They also appear frequently in names, particularly surnames. When they're associated with specific nouns, they often conjure up images.

Color first names don't seem common. Blanca, Blanche, and Bianca are all variations of foreign words for white (feminine). Notable names include actress Blanca Guerra, fictional character Blanche DuBois, and actress Bianca Jagger, Mick's ex-wife. Other color first names include Gray, as in Gray Davis, former California governor, and some Reds, as in Red Skelton, Red Adair (oil-well firefighter whose given first name is Paul), and Redd Foxx. (OK, so Redd has two d's.) Color surnames are a lot more common—Black, White, Gray, Green (and Greene), Brown, Blue, Gold, Golden come to mind.

Moods and emotions have numerous color associations—Blue Monday, blues music, having the blues, purple with rage, red-faced (rage, embarrassment), green (envy), yellow (cowardice), ashen (shock), white (fear, shock), gray day (somber day), black day (depressing day), Black Friday (3 definitions), black heart (negativity)

Green is versatile for associations besides mood or emotion (envy). It also has associations for the following characteristics: green around the gills (nauseated), green (inexperienced), greenhorn (noun form). Related to characteristics, we often differentiate figures and teams by colors of clothing or uniforms. Depending on whom you're favoring, color can become a positive or negative visual stimulus. An archetype for clothing color association is hat color—white vs. black. In the case of white and black hats, they even have iconic positive and negative connotations.

Moving on to color and "people", color-associated characters or personas evoke images, such as the following examples: Blue Meanies, Jolly Green Giant, Yella Fella, White Knight, Black Knight, Blue Santa, Brown Santa, Bluebeard, Blackbeard, blueblood, Blackhawk (helicopter).

At this point, I am segueing to "colorful" comic book characters. For those who want to reach back to their inner child, comicvine offers great revisits to favorite names in addition to the colorful ones I've listed as follows: Blackhawk, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Green Goblin, Silver Surfer.

In a similar vein about comic book characters, there are several who do not have "green" in their names, but appear green-themed—Loki (Thor's brother), Cobra, the Incredible Hulk, J'onn J'onzz (Martian Manhunter), Brainiac, and Brainiac 5.

A pastel color with associations—some of them characters—is pink: the singer Pink, Pink Lady drink, Pink Lady apple, Pinky (of Pinky and the Brain) , being in the pink, pinky (finger), pinking shears, pinko, and pink elephant .

BTW, a pink elephant is not related to a white elephant.

The economic association with colors contrasts with the electronic association:

• Economic—black (positive numbers, good), red (negative numbers, bad)
• Electronics (car batteries)—black (ground), red (positive voltage)

Related to electronics and color is the resistor color code—BBROYGBVGW (black, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, gray, white), for which acronymnfinder lists several mnemonics.

Silver, and especially gold, are metals (noun) and colors (adjective) that connote value, desirability, and other positive characteristics:

• Silver screen, silver spoon (born with a silver spoon, IOW, a great orator)
• Heart of gold, pot of gold, golden parachute, golden rule, golden years, streets paved with gold

Economics and politics are closely associated. Green is tied to both economics (greenbacks) and politics (environmentalism as a movement, reuse, recycling, etc.). Red, blue, and purple connote political leanings if shown on a map of the US, especially around election times.

Orange u glad to read about color associations here?