Word of the Day for Saturday, December 1, 2012

empurple \em-PUR-puhl\,
verb:
1. To color or become purple or purplish.
2. To darken or redden; flush.

On one side are baby grapes whose petals yet fall; on another the clusters empurple towards full growth.
-- Homer, translated by T.E. Lawrence, "The Odyssey"

Magnificent weather, one of those sun risings that empurple landscapes, left the river all its limpid serenity.
-- Alexandre Dumas, "The Man in the Iron Mask"

Empurple originated in the late 1580s from the Greek prefix em- meaning 'to become' and the color 'purple,' a word of Tyrian descent for the shellfish from which purple dye was made.

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