Word.ws English Dictionary

born to the purple

born to the purple adjective: born and raised in a royal family.

Adjective

born to the purple (not comparable)

  1. Born and raised in a royal family.
    • No one had had any experience of an emperor like Commodus, a Caesar born to the purple.1999, Anthony Richard Birley, Septimius Severus: the African emperor, page 57
  2. (broadly) Of children, born of prominent or high-ranking parents.
    • Near-synonyms: to the manor born, born with a silver spoon in one's mouth

Synonyms of born to the purple

Forms of born to the purple

alternative formborn in the purple

Origin of born to the purple

Calque of Ancient Greek πορφυρογέννητος (porphurogénnētos); purple was a luxury color reserved for the Byzantine imperial family. In other kingdoms as well, purple has been traditionally associated with royalty; in some times and places this was because vibrant purple dyes were expensive.

Questions about born to the purple

What does born to the purple mean?
Born to the purple means born and raised in a royal family.
What part of speech is born to the purple?
Born to the purple is an adjective.

Words near born to the purple in the dictionary

  1. born losers
  2. Born rigidity
  3. Born rule
  4. born sleeping
  5. born tired
  6. born to the purple
  7. born with a silver spoon in one's mouth
  8. Born's rule
  9. born-again
  10. born-again virgin
  11. born-again virginity

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: born to the purple (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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