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Friday 1 December 2017

Word To Use Today: porphyrogenite.

There are a few English words beginning porphyr, and they mean a rather random collection of things.

There's porphyria, which is a disease which causes stomach pain and mental confusion; there's porphyritic, which is a sort of rock that has large crystals embedded among small ones; there's porphyropsin, which is a pigment found in the eyes of some fish; and there's porphyrogenite, which is a prince born to a reigning king.

Can you see the link between all these words?

Well, probably not, apart from the obvious fact that they all start with porphyr- but the answer is the colour purple.

People with porphyria have purple pee*; porphyritic rocks have a structure similar to the rock porphyry, which is purple:

File:Porphyry support for a water basin MET DT8829.jpg
Porphyry stand for a basin, Metropolitan Museum of Art

porphyropsin gives fish purple eyes; and porphyrogenite describes a boy who's born to the purple - that is, born into kingship, purple being the colour of kings:


Henry VIII of England with his son, later Edward VI. Is the lady Edward's deceased mother Jane Seymour? My source doesn't say, but it looks quite like her.

How on earth you are going to use the word porphyrogenite, though, I do not know... 

...hmm...about a politician, perhaps.

Word To Use Today: porphyrogenite. The Greek for purple is porphuros, and the gen- bit is from genēs to be born.

*Try saying that very fast five times.

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