Purple Trivia

1. The idiom "Born in the Purple", in a general sense, refers to children born into what kind of family?

From Quiz Out of the Blue, Into the Red = Purple!

Answer: High class

The idiom stems from the days where the purple color was reserved for royalty, due to the high cost of producing purple dye back in that time. Hence, any child born into a royal family was "born in the purple". The expression has expanded in modern times to cover any children born into a high-ranking family. Note that it doesn't apply to children born from parents that would become prominent later in the life, as those children were born when the family was not yet "in the purple".

From Quiz The Royal Purple

Answer: Bishops

This is because the price of the dye purple was once so enormously expensive that only the wealthy could afford it. Originally, the colour was claimed exclusively by royalty, particularly Roman Emperors, and the common folk were banned from wearing it (as if they could afford it anyway). Later on in the history of mankind, the colour began to be worn by magistrates and then, in particular, by Catholic bishops because the colour is associated with piety and penitence. Priests often wore touches of purple during the times they were hearing confessions. Today the colour is commonly associated with royalty and with the Christian life. It is sometimes still referred to today as the royal purple.

From Quiz The Colour Mauve

Answer: 18

William Perkin was born the youngest of seven children on 12 March 1838 in the East End of London. He attended the Arthur Terrace School until the age of 13 when he transferred to the City of London School, near St Paul's Cathedral. After some opposition from his father, he enrolled at the Royal College of Chemistry in 1853, aged 15. Upon completion of the basic course, in 1855 he became the youngest assistant of the director, August Wilhelm von Hofmann. He discovered the mauve dye in the laboratory he had built at home.

From Quiz The Color Purple

Answer: Alice Walker

From what I've heard, it has some pretty intense subject matter.

From Quiz Out of the Blue, Into the Red = Purple!

Answer: Smoke

This question was harder to create than I expected! There are a lot of "purple" related songs, some of them quite obscure. In this case, the options selected were "Purple Haze" by The Jimi Hendrix Experience, "Purple Stain" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and "Purple Rain" by Prince. However, there is no song called "Purple Smoke". One might be tricked into thinking about one of the most recognizable rock songs, "Smoke on the Water", by Deep Purple, but it doesn't fit the criteria.

From Quiz We'll Gather Lilacs

Answer: Oklahoma!

The play was written by Lynn Riggs and appears to have had only a couple of limited runs, it did feature some well known names in the cast, including Franchot Tone, Tex Ritter and Lee Strasbourg. The musical version, both the stage and film adaptations, was much better known. The story line remained pretty much intact, but the songs were changed for the musical. The play had featured folk songs, such as the one which gave it its title, but these did not survive the rewrite. All the options listed were written by Rodgers and Hammerstein, but only 'Oklahoma!' featured Curly McClain.

From Quiz The Royal Purple

Answer: Sea snails

This dye first began to be made by the citizens of the cities of Sidon and Tyre, and the process to obtain same was long and difficult. It cost an enormous amount of time and effort to produce it, with an associated price, and the colour became known as Tyrian purple. Thousands of the little snails had to be first found and then removed from their shells. They were then soaked for a time before a minute gland was removed from each of their bodies. Following this, the glands were squashed and the few drops of juice obtained carefully kept until enough was obtained to fill a small container. When exposed to sunlight, this juice turned white, then yellow, green, violet and a deep red which was allowed to stay in the sun until it deepened into the required shade. When fabrics were dyed with this precious substance, the colour remained bright, lovely and long-lasting.

From Quiz Purplely Correct

Answer: California

This purple-toned grass is found throughout the valleys and mountain areas of California, especially in the Sacramento Valley. It was named California's state grass in 2004. In Montana, it is the bluebunch wheatgrass. Colorado has the blue grama. Missouri is home of the big bluestem.

From Quiz I've Hit a Purple Patch

Answer: Amethyst

Whilst all of these are birthstones, the amethyst is the only one that is purple. There are a number of stories in Greek mythology on the origins of the amethyst as a talisman against drunkenness. One is that Amethystos was a woman who was pursued by Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and intoxication. Artemis helped her to avoid Dionysus' unwanted attentions by turning her into a white stone. Dionysus, out of respect for her wish to stay chaste, poured wine over the white stone, thus turning it purple.

From Quiz The Colour Mauve

Answer: a treatment for malaria

The only effective treatment for malaria, which was endemic in many countries of the world (including the Fens and marshes of England, France, Spain, Holland and Italy), was quinine, obtained from cinchona bark. Its chemical constituents were known and differed slightly from those of naphthaladine which had been isolated from coal tar, a waste product of coal gasification. By adding water, which contained the extra hydrogen and oxygen needed, Perkin hoped to synthesise quinine. The alternative choices were all indirect consequences of Perkin's work which showed that the relatively new science of chemistry had a practical use and led to huge growth in the number of chemists.

From Quiz Purple Mania

Answer: Heart

It was given to any US military personnel killed or wounded in combat.

From Quiz The Color Purple

Answer: Barney & Barney the Purple Dinosaur

Barney the Dinosaur is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the children's television series "Barney & Friends". The character is known for being a friendly, purple Tyrannosaurus rex who comes to life through the imagination of children.

From Quiz Out of the Blue, Into the Red = Purple!

Answer: Yoshi

Yoshi is the only one of all the characters listed that does not fit this quiz. He's the lovable green sidekick of Super Mario, first introduced in "Super Mario World" (1995). He has the ability to eat some of Mario's enemies, and stomp on them with a lot more force than Mario alone. He can also be found in other colors, which will give him special abilities when holding a turtle shell in his mouth: red will make him spit fire, blue will let him fly for a brief period of time, and yellow will cause the ground to shake whenever he jumps, knocking nearby enemies down. The other three are all purple colored. Barney barely needs an introduction; Dino is the house pet from "The Flintstones"; and Chomper is a young Tyrannosaurus from the "The Land Before Time" movie franchise.

From Quiz We'll Gather Lilacs

Answer: Frank Pike

Ian played the part of Private Pike, the 'stupid boy', from 1968 until 1977. He was the youngest member of the Home Guard platoon, which was run by the fussy and pompous Captain Mainwaring, played by Arthur Lowe. These two gave the series one of its memorable scenes. A German officer demands that Pike tell him his name only for Captain Mainwaring to shout 'Don't tell him Pike'. Sergeant Arthur Wilson was portrayed by John le Mesurier and was the unacknowledged biological father of Pike, who was liable to call him 'Uncle Arthur' at inappropriate times. Jack Jones was played by Clive Dunn and James Frazer by John Laurie. Ian Lavender went on to appear in 'EastEnders', playing Derek Harkinson between 2001 and 2005.

From Quiz The Royal Purple

Answer: They dyed the tails of their horses

How insulting for the little sea-snails. Their lives were sacrificed to pretty up the bottoms of horses. One presumes this had some significance, but why is hard to find. One is inclined to think that purple manes would have been a little less demeaning for the snails somehow. Homer tells us that the warrior Ajax wore a purple belt as well. It also mentions in the "Odyssey" that Odysseus had purple blankets for his bed. In 2008, just to illustrate how precious this substance really was, German chemist Paul Friedander, when trying to reproduce the ancient skill of obtaining it, used 12,000 sea snails to obtain 1.4 ounces of the dye.

From Quiz Purplely Correct

Answer: People Eater

The song was number one for six weeks on the Billboard pop charts in 1958. A childhood friend of Wooley's gave him the idea. The creature came down from outer space to be in a rock and roll band and the "one-eyed, one-horned flying" creature began to eat purple people while here. Sheb Wooley was big within country music, but is probably best known as the driver Pete Nolan in the hit TV western "Rawhide" (1959-1966), starring Clint Eastwood.

From Quiz The Colour Mauve

Answer: it is French for the mallow plant

There are about a thousand species of mallows which are known for the slimy protein (mucilage) they contain. They are used in many herbal remedies and originally marshmallow sweets were made by boiling marsh mallow roots and extracting the mucilage which was useful as a cough suppressant. The flower of the Common Mallow is the light blue purple colour now known as mauve.

From Quiz Purple Mania

Answer: Deep Purple

And still a very popular group today!

From Quiz The Color Purple

Answer: Tinky Winky

From Quiz We'll Gather Lilacs

Answer: Provence

Provence is particularly known for its lavender fields, as well as for wine and cuisine. Many of us may have learned about the area from Peter Mayle's book 'A Year in Provence', which came out in 1989, and the subsequent television adaptation. The mixture called 'Herbes de Provence' which includes lavender is not traditional, though, and not all versions include it. Other dried herbs, which are likely to be included in any mixture, are marjoram, thyme and rosemary.

From Quiz The Royal Purple

Answer: It was the work of the devil

Lord bless us, this was indeed the case. They believed that mixing red and blue to produce a cloth dyed purple was going against the laws of nature, was in fact diabolical and would bring the wrath of God down upon their heads. Accordingly, people who dyed red fabric and those who dyed blue fabric had to work in different establishments and be part of different guilds. Purple dyes were produced eventually during this era by utilising the fruit of the blackberry. Though this certainly produced a lovely purple shade for cloth, it faded when exposed to sunlight or when washed. Now that is definitely diabolical.

From Quiz I've Hit a Purple Patch

Answer: Sheb Wooley

'Purple People Eater' can be best described as a novelty song. Sheb Wooley (b 1921) started out his career as an actor in Westerns, including 'High Noon'. Whilst he did write a number of other novelty songs, 'Purple People Eater' was his most enduring hit. 'Weird Al' Yankovic gave us a number of classic novelty/parody songs, including 'Eat It'. One of Ray Steven's contributions to the novelty song genre was 'The Streak'. Gary Cooper was the lead actor in 'High Noon', in which Wooley had a minor role.

From Quiz The Colour Mauve

Answer: Greenford Green

With support and financial help from his father, Perkin located his factory on a 6 acre meadow near the Grand Junction Canal at Greenford Green, near Harrow, Middlesex. Construction began at the end of June 1857 and a year later silk was being dyed mauve by Thomas Keith at his factory in Bethnal Green. Perth was where Perkin met Robert Pullar, a dyer, who was enthusiastic about mauve from the start and introduced Perkin to Keith who found the techniques to make mauve a commercial success. Leeds was where Perkin addressed the British Association in 1858 and revealed the results of his endeavours to the scientific community in general.

From Quiz The Color Purple

Answer: People-eater

I used to like this song but it got old really fast.

From Quiz The Royal Purple

Answer: English

Perkin didn't have that aim in mind when he set to work in his laboratory. Instead, he was trying to manufacture a synthetic quinine which was then being manufactured from the bark of the Cinchona tree from Peru. In the 19th century, when the Peruvian and other South American country leaders realised how sought after this product was to combat the effects of malaria among Europeans, the export of the saplings and the tree seeds was outlawed, thus setting up the need for a synthetic replacement. This wasn't found until 1944 by two American chemists. In the meantime, chemists worked long and hard in an attempt to achieve this goal. William Henry Perkin was striving to do the same in 1856 when instead he created his famous aniline dye. This produced a brilliant substitute for the previously exorbitantly priced natural method of creating purple dye.

From Quiz I've Hit a Purple Patch

Answer: Overly ornate

To describe a piece of writing as 'purple prose' is to criticise it for being overly ornate or flowery. The origins of the phrase have been attributed to the Roman poet Horace. Horace used the word 'purpureus', translated as 'purple patch', in his work 'Ars Poetic' when critiquing another's work.

From Quiz The Colour Mauve

Answer: Empress Eugenie

The Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III, was encouraged by her husband to promote trade by wearing fashionable silk garments and soon became the leading fashion icon of her day. She was one of the first to wear mauve but the dye used was a natural one made in France where it was also called "Perkin's purple". Perkin liked the association of the word "mauve" with Parisian haute couture and adopted it instead of his original name "Tyrian purple".

From Quiz Purple Mania

Answer: Purple People Eater

Words and music written by Sheb Wooley that was released in the 1950s. It apparently made it to Number One on the charts in 1958 for 6 weeks!

From Quiz We'll Gather Lilacs

Answer: Elkie Brooks

The song was originally written in 1950. Elkie's version reached number sixteen on the UK Singles Chart in 1978. Other singers to have recorded it include Eartha Kitt and Miley Cyrus, possibly the only thing those two singers have in common. Elkie's other hits include the Chris Rea song 'Fool (if You Think it's Over)' in 1981 and 'Don't Cry Out Loud' in 1978. 'Pearls' came out in 1981 and was part 'greatest hits' and part new songs, including 'If You Leave Me Now', written by Peter Cetera.

From Quiz The Royal Purple

Answer: Unorthodox Christian religious minorities

This purple concentration camp badge was used to identify non-orthodox religious followers such as Jehovah Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, Baptists, and anyone, such as pacifists, who spoke out against the Nazis and the war effort or refused to fight. The badges were sewn onto the jackets or shirts of the detainees. One must, after all, believe in an orthodox religion when going about the business of exterminating people.

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Last Updated Oct 18 2025 5:50 AM

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