Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of various marine gastropods of the genus Murex common in tropical seas and having rough spiny shells, especially M. trunculus, the source of Tyrian purple.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. . [capitalized] The typical genus of Mùricidæ. The aperture of the shell is rounded, the canal is long and straight, and the outer surface of the shell is interrupted by numerous varices or spines, at least three to a whorl. The most remarkable forms of these shells are from tropical seas. The animals are highly rapacious, and some of them do great damage to oyster-beds, as the European M. erinaceus. The celebrated purple dye of the ancients was chiefly furnished by the animals of two species of the genus Murex, M. trunculus and M. brandaris, the dye being secreted by a special gland, called the “purpurigenous gland,” of the animal. The amount secreted being very small, the number of animals sacrificed to secure it was correspondingly large, and the cost therefore great. Hence its use was confined to the wealthy, or reserved for sacred or regal purposes. Its manufacture seems to have expired after the capture of Constantinople by the Turks.
- n. A species of this genus.
- n. Pl. murexes or murices (-rek-sez,-ri-sēz). A caltrop.
- n. A shell used as a trumpet, as in representations of tritons, in art.
Wiktionary
- n. Any of the genus Murex of marine gastropods.
Etymologies
- New Latin Mūrex, genus name, from Latin mūrex, purple-fish. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Is this indeed the "murex," as Browning calls it, of the Tyrian purple, which can be found on the Minehead rocks at low-tide by the holiday-makers of our day?”
“The whole verse of course begins to explain itself, if we know the meaning of the word "murex," which is the name of a sea-shell, out of which was made the celebrated blue dye of Tyre.”
“The 'murex' contains a dye of miraculous beauty; and this once extracted and bottled, Hobbs, Nobbs, and Co. may trade in it and feast; but the poet who (figuratively) brought the murex to land, and created its value, may, as Keats probably did, eat porridge all his life.”
“I can think of a lot of pink in nature: the inside of a white murex shell is pink.”
“These wide-ranging traders were especially known for trafficking in the cedars of Lebanon from the coastal mountains of their homeland and a rare purple dye derived from the murex shells of the Lebanese coast.”
“The Phoenicians were the pioneers in the seventh century BC, scouting for the imperial purple dye found in the murex sea snails of the Moroccan coast.”
The Guardian: Atlantic: A Vast Ocean of a Million Stories by Simon Winchester – review
“I wish I could get royal purple not amythyst, not murex purple — real royal purple seed beads.”
“Best to Corcyra go for cuttle-fish, for the acarne and the fat sea-skull the purple-fish, the little murex too, mice of the sea and the sea-urchin sweet.”
“The most famous example of this, according to Macquer, is murex purple (Tyrian purple); he noted that most other colors in this class are light-brown, fawn or root colors.”
“They introduced the alphabet to writing systems, exported cedars of Lebanon for shipbuilding and marketed the regal purple dye made from the murex shell.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘murex’.
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molluscs
very comprehensive list
of molluscs,who does not like
calamari? hmm yum
molluscigerous
100,000 species just in molluscsabalone, ammonite, argonaut, ataata, belon, bivalve, blackhead, bluepoint, brachiopod, buckie, byssal, byssus and 271 more...
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A Sequel to 250 Spelling Words
Words to quiz the intermediate and advanced speller alike
amatorio, esemplastic, etesian, cholecystitis, chantepleure, paternoster, mondegreen, aporia, kairos, idioglossia, klepht, phansigar and 238 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Flora and fauna ending in 'x'
Scientific names are in, but bacteria and viruses are out, so no -poxes.
Also no Gauls.ibex, fox, ilex, ox, phoenix, lynx, hyrax, sphinx, chevaux, tamarix, tortrix, dipteryx and 59 more...
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X Marks the Spot
Words ending in "x" (except proper nouns and trademarks)
ax, ex, ox, soapbox, smallpox, six, sex, sax, rex, pressbox, climax, chickenpox and 208 more...
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marginalia
exuberance, potsherds, earthbound, marcher, märchen, pastiche, transliterated, crocodile, oxbridge, jejune, publican, antithesis and 143 more...
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Dyes & Pigments
gamboge, anil, catechu, cinnabar, vermilion, ponceau, cochineal, kermes, lac, eosin, azure, indigo and 134 more...
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Chromonyms
These chromonyms are defined as colors in at least one dictionary (mostly MW3). (Actually there's one fake, for reasons I'll explain someday.) They are all one-word nouns such as "kelly", which can...
absinthe, acacia, acorn, alabaster, alesan, almond, aloma, amaranth, amber, amethyst, anemone, anil and 821 more...
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Mollusks
"Snaily, clammy, squidy" has evolved into a vehicle for linking to mollusk quotations, so I've started this list for vernacular names of mollusks.
clam, snail, slug, squid, octopus, nautilus, conch, chank, whelk, mussel, oyster, scallop and 221 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for murex.
yaybob Genus of tropical sea snail from which a purple dye is derived Dec 10, 2008
colleen The port city of Tyre was the ancient capital of Phoenicia and was best known for the production of purple dye extracted from the murex sea snail.
- National Geographic May 16, 2007