Re: Color Words

��<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META content="text/html; charset=unicode" http-equiv=Content-Type> <META content="MSHTML 5.00.2014.210" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode">Hello,</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode">the magical purple really is an interesting thing!</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode">Pjotr wrote:</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode">Maybe Sabine would have something to say about it</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode">I do. First of all there is the question of what color we are talking about. One of the professionals in the field of purple, Robert R. Stieglitz, actually answers all our questions in his article 'The Minoan Origin of Tyrian Purple' (in: Biblical Archaeologist 57/1994)</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode">Which color?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode">"The dye could be produced in a great variety of shades, depending upon the mixture of the different shellfish utilized. Variations could also be made by chemical means, such as light conditions and reducing agents. The resulting colors include red, blue, and dark purple, the latter being considered the most noble of the tints. All shades were utilized primarily to color ceremonial garments." (p. 48) Please not that chemically the dyed with purple (and light, applicable on wool) is exactly the same as indigo (the plant used for dyeing jeans...)</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode">Which language?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode">"The Mycenaean Greek term po-pu-re-ia 'purple' is found in several Linear B tablets from Knossos, which deal with textile allocations. One of these tablets (KN X976) actually contains the expression wa-na-ka-te-ro po-pu-re-/ /'royal purple'. This is the first written attestation of a term which in later ages became synonymous with 'Tyrian purple'. /.../ The Classical Greek root porphyr- is used to designate both the mollusc and its dye, but it is not an Indo-European word. Astour (1965) proposed, unconvincingly to my mind, to derive this term from a Canaanite root *parpar meaning 'to churn, to boil'. However, the Canaanite word for the purple molluscs was evidently 'hillazon' - or word of unknown origin attested only in Talmudic Hebrew. /.../ As for the Mycenaean term 'porphyr' -, I would suggest that this was originally a Minoan word, borrowed by the Mycenaeans when they learned from the Minoans to produce the dye." (p. 52)</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode">Well?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode">Lots of greetings from Crete</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode">Sabine</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>

Re: Color Words - purple