the.com/purple
the color so expensive for centuries that wearing it could get you killed.
means A color between red and blue, traditionally associated with royalty and luxury.
from From Old English 'purpul', an alteration of Latin 'purpura', which named both the color and the sea-snail it came from. The Greeks called it 'porphyra' — the murex shellfish whose mucus yielded a dye so labor-intensive (thousands of snails per gram) that Tyrian purple cost more than its weight in gold, and emperors hoarded it as a sumptuary right.
royal dyeMade from thousands of crushed sea snails per gram
name originTyrian purple smelled foul during production
no wavelengthBrain invents it; pure purple isn't in rainbows
sumptuary lawsRomans banned commoners from wearing it
mauve accidentFirst synthetic dye discovered hunting malaria cure