I was mooching about in the OED the other day, looking for synonyms for ‘anger’, and found
verb
Make or become purple:[NO OBJECT]: his face empurpled with fury
Wiktionary was even better:
(third-person singular simple present empurples, present participle empurpling, simple past and past participle empurpled)
1. To make purple.
2. To enrage or anger, referring to making the face purple or red with blood.
3. Of writing, to make overly flowery or showy; to embellish unduly.
It’s rare; hardly anyone uses it, which is a shame because it’s rich and a little bit 17th century drunken, grumpy uncle. So I thought I’d start a trend — if I use it a few times, it might catch on. (“Don’t get empurpled at me just because you don’t like DIY.”)
I might have a loiter in the road by the school gate later, see if I can empurple a few motorists.
TM Upchurch 