Today, though, the term goes far beyond mere literary convention. Unevenly written texts were singled out for censure and 'purple patch' was the ideal label for a passage that stood out as overly florid." ![]() Literary convention in particular the term only became popular in the 18th century, as Gary Martin at The Phrase Finder explains, when "literary critics valued evenness of pace and style in literary works. It goes beyond the bounds, splashing and smearing purple way outside the lines of convention. What strikes me about all the iterations of "purple" writing is the idea of excess-this type of writing is somehow too much. but, on the whole, a satisfying terseness and an unobtrusive local flavor inform the dialogue." - Commonweal 25 Feb. "His writing stumbles into purple patches. The Purple Patches he claps upon his Course Style, make it seem much Courser than it is." - True Tom Double, ?1704 "One Part of the Work should not so far out-shine, as to Obscure and Darken the Other. ![]() Purple patch, the oldest of this group of related English phrases, continues in a negative vein: "An elaborate or excessively ornate passage in a literary composition." (Roman poet Horace, the originator of the phrase purpureus pannus, also uses it to condemn inappropriate excessive of description.) 2004, 29/1.īoth examples are negatives writers and speakers who avoid purple passages are to be praised, suggesting that those who indulge are to be condemned. written rude comments in the margins near the frequent passages of purple prose." - Times Literary Supplement, 10 Dec. Glowing adjectives and purple prose embellish the descriptions." -N Straus, Two Thirds of Nation, 1952 "He sees advertisements describing new houses for sale. Two of the three examples cited suggest the negative connotations of the phrase: The OED defines Purple prose, which dates from 1901, as "overly ornate or fussy prose cf PURPLE PASSAGE." Turning to my trusty copy of the Oxford English Dictionary (online version), I discovered a phrase with a long past, one that certainly predates the existence of genre romance. Lane and Hall's post, as well as Barry's, though, had me wondering if my definition was correct. I had always associated the phrase with bad writing, and in particular, with the euphemistically bad writing used to describe sex in the historical romances of the 1970s. ![]() Recent online discussions of the phrase "purple prose" as applied to romance novel writing by author Emma Barry and reviewers/bloggers Elisabeth Lane and Alexis Hall at All About Romancegot the attention of my inner word-nerd.
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