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Apr 2, 2008 08:12
16 yrs ago
11 viewers *
English term

violet vs. purple

English Marketing Cosmetics, Beauty localisation query
Could you confirm my impression that PURPLE and VIOLET are the same color, but the first is US English, while the second British English??
thank you
Responses
3 +9 I disagree ...
3 +8 Purple is standard name
3 +6 violet is slightly bluer
5 violeta y morado
Change log

Apr 2, 2008 08:37: Steffen Walter changed "Term asked" from "viola, localisation query " to "violet vs. purple" , "Field" from "Other" to "Marketing" , "Field (write-in)" from "(none)" to "localisation query"

Discussion

BrettMN Apr 3, 2008:
It appears the Italian word for purple is "porpora." "Viola" translates as "violet." So it's a matter of their being two words for two colors in both languages. "Violet hair" is perfectly acceptable; it's just that "purple" will be a more concrete image.
angibi (asker) Apr 3, 2008:
the thing is, I had "viola" in Italian.... In Google there are far more hits for "purple hair" than "violet hair".
BrettMN Apr 2, 2008:
Natural in a linguistic sense although not in a biological sense, that is! :-)
BrettMN Apr 2, 2008:
I'm not sure how proficient your client is in English, but "purple hair" sounds much, much more natural to me than "violet hair," which just sounds bizarre. It is perfectly all right to call hair purple if it's purple. (I say this as a native speaker.)
angibi (asker) Apr 2, 2008:
I had no idea I was going to stir up sucha debate Thank you all, because my problem was that I had translated "purple" from the Italian word "viola" referring to a hair dye, and my customer told me that I should have used "violet" . I had always used the word purple, and since I learned English in the USA I thought that that was the word most commonly used. But I guess things are more complicated and anyway there is no US/BE difference.
"Still, I do not see why hair should be violet and not purple)
Nesrin Apr 2, 2008:
[The author of the above text that I cited ("janetcatmull etc") later admits that she's wrong and that it's the opposite, so please ignore it!]
Nesrin Apr 2, 2008:
... but Ken's Wikipedia link does confirm my understanding after all, as well as the fact that "purple" may be used for the group of colours which includes violet on one end and magenta on the other (as pointed out by aceavila-Noni).
Nesrin Apr 2, 2008:
http://janetcatmull.blogspot.com/2006/11/titanic-or-whats-di...
Nesrin Apr 2, 2008:
I'm not going to add this to my answer because it contradicts what I say, but it may be correct so I thought you should see it:
"Purple is a group of colors that includes violet, violet is more red, and purple is more blue."

Responses

+9
11 mins
English term (edited): viola, localisation query
Selected

I disagree ...

... on both fronts. As a BE speaker, I see both "purple" and "violet" as being ordinary, everyday words, and certainly do not see "purple" as a non-BE word.

There are a huge number of terms for different colours and shades, and while purple and violet are similar, I don't think one can see them as identical unless you are speaking in very crude terms. To my mind, violet is more in the blue direction than purple (basically the colour of the flower).
Peer comment(s):
agree Marie-Hélène Hayles : definitely not a GB/US divide.
2 mins
agree cmwilliams (X)
5 mins
agree Jack Doughty
6 mins
agree Ken Cox : As a US native, I'd say that both terms are used, and they have slightly different meanings, with violet being more narrowly defined.
13 mins
agree Can Altinbay : Absolutely.
5 hrs
agree BrettMN : They are both used in both countries to describe slightly different colors (violet and purple are slightly different colors from each other). It has nothing to do with regional English.
7 hrs
agree Jeanette Phillips : violet is the name of a purple-ish flower, and has since been adopted as a colour; another eg could be aqua for a type of blue. If you are talking about cosmetics or beauty products, then violet is a morelikely choice than purple.
10 hrs
agree Vicky Nash : Violet is a shade of purple, but definitely no language divide there.
23 hrs
agree Rachel Fell
1 day 14 hrs
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Hard to choose an answer here. I do thank everyone"
+8
16 mins
English term (edited): violet, localisation query

Purple is standard name

As a child in GB I used purple as the standard, default, general name for the colour. Violet was more specialized. So purple covers a wider range of the spectrum. But pls see my comment in agreeing with Nesrin.

Don't know about US though.
Peer comment(s):
agree Ken Cox : same in the US IMO
9 mins
Thanks for the info.
agree Nesrin : Agree with that too.
23 mins
Thanks.
agree Expialidocio (X) : Agreement from an American.
28 mins
Thanks for the info.
agree Helen Genevier : i also understand violet to be a subset of purple, voilet being the colour of the flower as Armourel says (another UK opinion)
38 mins
Thanks
agree veratek : US EN - this was always my understanding: "Purple is a group of colors that includes violet, violet is more red, and purple is more blue."
1 hr
Thanks for info.
agree NancyLynn : Canada too - violet is a subset of purple, as Ken Cox mentions above, it's more narrowly defined
4 hrs
Thanks Nancy - good to build on the info too.
agree Reza Mohammadnia
4 hrs
Thanks Reza.
agree Vicky Nash
23 hrs
Thanks Vicky
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+6
11 mins
English term (edited): viola, localisation query

violet is slightly bluer

I don't have any references, but my understanding is that violet has more blue in its mix than purple. Purple is definitely used in the UK, so I don't think it's a US/UK thing.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 3 hrs (2008-04-02 11:24:18 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Here's the relevant bit from the Wikipedia page (I put *** around the most relevant bits):

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***. (...)
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. The same increase in blueness is not noted in purples.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple#Purple_versus_violet

But the article also starts with the words "Purple is a general term used in English to describe a range of shades of color occurring between red and blue" so I guess you can choose whether you want to regard violet as a colour at the end of the purple spectrum, or right outside of it.
Peer comment(s):
agree Noni Gilbert Riley : Yes, now you come to mention it! Dangerous ground though - colour perception is in the individual eye (not to mention numerous colourblind souls around). A q: does anyone agree there might be a difference between green/blue threshold in diff countries?
3 mins
agree Marie-Hélène Hayles : to aceavila - yes, my perception is that Italians call things azzurri (sky blue) which I would call turquoise (turchese in Italian), but whether it's a cultural difference or individual perception I'm unable to say
3 mins
agree cmwilliams (X)
7 mins
agree Ken Cox : yep -- the site you cited in your ATA comment has it wrong; see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple
15 mins
Yes, thank you, that settles it! But the site cited in the ATA comment is right in that "purple" may be used as a more general term which includes violet.
agree David Moore (X) : Read "Janet said..." in your "ATA" posting - you should have offered it after all!
16 mins
Ah thank you - it took me a while to understand what you mean! So Janet has actually corrected herself further down the page!!
agree Rachel Fell : and purple can also suggest quite a lot of reddishness, as well as being the generic term for in between red and blue colour
1 day 14 hrs
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10 hrs

violeta y morado

Yo también tuve esa duda por mucho tiempo, pero según lo entendí son dos colores diferentes. El morado (purple) es un violeta más rojizo, y violet es violeta puro, más concentrado digamos.
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