Nascent Drama

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Etymology and definitions

 

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The word 'purple' comes from the Old English word purpul which originates from the Latin purpura.

 

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This in turn is derived from the Koine Greek πορφύρα (porphyra), name of the dye manufactured in Classical antiquity from the mucus-secretion of the hypobranchial gland of a marine snail known as the Murex brandaris or the spiny dye-murex.[4]

 

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The first recorded use of the word 'purple' in English was in the year AD 975.[5]

 

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The color regarded as the standard for purple has changed over the years, from Tyrian Purple in ancient times to Electric Purple today.

 

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Purple versus violet

 

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Main article: Violet (color)

 

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Violet is a spectral color (approximately 420–380nm), of a shorter wavelength than blue, while purple is a combination of red and blue or violet light.

 

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The purples are colors that are not spectral colors – purples are extra-spectral colors. In fact, purple was not present on Newton's color wheel (which went directly from violet to red), though it is present on modern ones, between red and violet.

 

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There is no such thing as the "wavelength of purple light"; it only exists as a combination.

 

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Violet
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet #8B00FF
B (r, g, b) (139, 0, 255)
HSV (h, s, v) (273°, 100%, 100%)
Source BF2S Color Guide
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

 

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On the CIE xy chromaticity diagram, violet is on the curved edge in the lower left, while purples are the straight line connecting the extreme colors red and violet.

 

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One interesting psychophysical feature of the two colors that can be used to separate them is their appearance with increase of light intensity.

 

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Violet, as light intensity increases, appears to take on a far more blue hue as a result of what is known as the Bezold-Brücke shift.

 

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The same increase in blueness is not noted in purples.

 

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Violet cannot be reproduced by a Red-Green-Blue (RGB) color system, and must be simulated by a mixture of red and blue (purple).

 

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The shade of violet simulated in the color box above is just over halfway between magenta and blue on the color wheel.

 

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Properties

 

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On a chromaticity diagram, the straight line connecting the extreme spectral colors (red and violet) is known as the 'line of purples' (or 'purple boundary'); it represents one limit of human color perception.

 

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The color magenta used in the CMYK printing process is on the line of purples, but most people associate the term "purple" with a somewhat bluer shade.