Since 1992
Print and digital marketing
By Barbara McAllister
Word of the Day: Purple
The color purple, coveted throughout history, is notably associated with aristocrats and royalty and less notably associated with snail snot and dog saliva. Purple traces its name back to the Greek word porphyra, which referred to a purple dye or purple color. The word is borrowed from the Phoenician’s name for the shellfish found near the city of Tyre, from which the purple dye was obtained. Mythology says Hercules’ dog led to the discovery of the dye when the dog chewed on a sea snail picked off the beach and subsequently developed purple drool.
Because Tyrian purple came from the mucus of dead sea snails, an enormous amount of mucus was needed to yield a tiny amount of dye. The snails literally became worth their weight in gold. Experiments in the 20th century concluded that it took eight thousand mollusks to produce one gram of dye! Imagine dye workshops along the Eastern Mediterranean with their nearby beaches covered with thousands of rotting mollusks.
Purple’s rarity made it one of the most coveted and expensive colors in history. Imperial Romans who wore purple were considered descendants of gods. Laws were created to restrict wearers of the color to Kings and Emperors. When the Earl of Surrey was tried for high treason against Henry VIII in 1547, evidence against him included that he was seen wearing purple, a color only the king was allowed to wear. Purple may have been costly and royal but the natural historian, Pliny, remarked on noticing a distinct fishy smell evident even after the dyed cloth was made into clothing.
Its prestige came to an end in 1856 when an 18-year-old English chemist accidentally created a synthetic purple dye while attempting to synthesize an anti-malarial drug. Once the color became easily available to the lower classes of society, the mystique and allure of purple vanished like flies driven off rotting shellfish.
