purplenessn.
/ˈpəːplnəs/, U.S. /ˈpərpəlnəs/ The quality or condition of being purple in colour. Also figurative: richness, floridness.
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the world > matter > colour > named colours > purple or purpleness > [noun]
purple?a1439
colour-de-roy1531
roy1549
mercury1562
purpleness1852
1852 H. Melville Pierre xxv. iv. 469 All here lived a hidden life, curtained by that cunning purpleness, which, from the piazza of the manor house, so beautifully invested the mountain.
1875 Appleton's Jrnl. 13 Nov. 628/1 There was..a pimply purpleness in the principal feature of his face that indicated a proneness to dissipation and late hours.
1934 Musical Times 75 135/2 The effect of the shortening is to heighten the general degree of purpleness in what remains... A sitting with these records gives you all the colour and excitement you need in a day.
1951 Mansfield (Ohio) News Jrnl. 13 June 13/2 The puffy purpleness about the eyes didn't interfere with Rosen's hitting the ball.
1993 B. Whitehead Sweet Death Come Softly (BNC) 219 When they lifted the body there was that purpleness underneath.
2005 Sunday Times (Nexis) 8 May 12 The prose maintains its purpleness: ‘Clackmannanshire is Scotland in miniature—magnificent scenery, a turbulent history and welcoming people’.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1852