bishop's purple
- noun
- The choir's new robes were a distinctive bishop's purple that stood out in the candlelight.
Examples
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The velvet drapes were dyed a deep bishop's purple for the cathedral's restoration.
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She admired the bishop's purple in the artist's palette, finding it both rich and subtle.
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The walls were painted in a lovely bishop's purple.
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I love the shade of bishop's purple for my bedroom.
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The choir's new robes were a distinctive bishop's purple that stood out in the candlelight.
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The velvet drapes were dyed a deep bishop's purple for the cathedral's restoration.
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I love the shade of bishop's purple for my bedroom.
Synonyms
Having a color between red and blue like violet
A purple color with a clear red tint
A medium reddish-purple color like deep purple flowers
A color between red and purple, like ripe grapes
A red color with a little purple in it
How Purple
Surface Forms
Morphology
bishop's + purple
The possessive construction 'bishop's' + 'purple' straightforwardly signals a purple color associated with bishops, so a learner who knows 'bishop' and 'purple' will infer it names a shade of purple. While the precise tint cannot be predicted without prior exposure, the general meaning 'a type of purple' follows common color-naming patterns and is cross-linguistically transparent.
Etymology
Bishop's purple may come from the rich robes that a bishop wore long ago in a deep purple color. So, the name now means that reddish, slightly blue 'color'.