Contrary to popular opinion, the word "purple" does have rhymes in the English language. In fact, there are two rhyming words, abet words that aren't used in today's vernacular.

  • Hirple is a British word, which means "to walk lamely or hobble".
  • Curple is a word out of Scotland, which refers to the hindquarters of a horse. The current Shorter OED lists 'curple' dating from 1591.

Perhaps "nurple" could also be said to rhyme with purple, but I can't find any indication that Nurple is a proper English word. However, there exists such a drink as a "Purple Nurple", and a web site, nurple.com, that uses 'nurple' as a tag word. When does a made-up word enter proper usage? Who draws that line?

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