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Purl vs Pur - What's the difference?

purl | pur |

As a noun purl

is a particular stitch in knitting; an inversion of stitches giving the work a ribbed or waved appearance or purl can be a heavy or headlong fall; an upset or purl can be (uk|dialect) a circle made by the motion of a fluid; an eddy; a ripple or purl can be (archaic) ale or beer spiced with wormwood or other bitter herbs, regarded as a tonic or purl can be (uk|dialect) a tern.

As a verb purl

is to decorate with fringe or embroidered edge or purl can be (archaic) to upset, to spin, capsize, fall heavily, fall headlong or purl can be to flow with a murmuring sound in swirls and eddies.

As an adjective pur is

pure.

purl

English

Etymology 1

Etymology uncertain; apparently related to Scots and dialect pirl ("twist, ripple, whirl, spin"), and possibly to Older Scots pyrl ("thrust or poke at"). Compare Venetian pirlo , an embellishment where the woven threads are twisted together. May be unrelated to purfle, though the meanings are similar.

Noun

(en noun)
  • A particular stitch in knitting; an inversion of stitches giving the work a ribbed or waved appearance.
  • The edge of lace trimmed with loops.
  • An embroidered and puckered border; a hem or fringe, often of gold or silver twist; also, a pleat or fold, as of a band.
  • * Sir Philip Sidney
  • A triumphant chariot made of carnation velvet, enriched with purl and pearl.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To decorate with fringe or embroidered edge
  • Needlework purled with gold.
  • (knitting) an inverted stitch producing ribbing etc
  • Knit one, purl two.

    Etymology 2

    from (etyl)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • a heavy or headlong fall; an upset.
  • Verb

    (en verb)
  • (archaic) To upset, to spin, capsize, fall heavily, fall headlong.
  • The huntsman was purled from his horse.

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To flow with a murmuring sound in swirls and eddies.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • Swift o'er the rolling pebbles, down the hills, / Louder and louder purl the falling rills.
  • To rise in circles, ripples, or undulations; to curl; to mantle.
  • * Shakespeare
  • thin winding breath which purled up to the sky

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (UK, dialect) A circle made by the motion of a fluid; an eddy; a ripple.
  • * Drayton
  • Whose stream an easy breath doth seem to blow, / Which on the sparkling gravel runs in purles , / As though the waves had been of silver curls.
  • (UK, dialect) A gentle murmuring sound, such as that produced by the running of a liquid among obstructions.
  • the purl of a brook

    Etymology 4

    Possibly from the pearl-like appearance caused by bubbles on the surface of the liquid.

    Noun

    (-)
  • (archaic) Ale or beer spiced with wormwood or other bitter herbs, regarded as a tonic.
  • * The Spectator , number 88
  • A double mug of purle .
  • (archaic) Hot beer mixed with gin, sugar, and spices.
  • * Addison
  • Drank a glass of purl to recover appetite.
  • * Charles Dickens
  • Drinking hot purl , and smoking pipes.

    Etymology 5

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (UK, dialect) A tern.
  • (Webster 1913)

    Anagrams

    *

    pur

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (low murmuring sound as of a cat)
  • * 1895 , Jacob Mendes Da Costa, Medical diagnosis (page 294)
  • The first — called by Laennec, from its resemblance to the pur of a cat, the purring tremor — is nearly always indicative of a valvular lesion. The second is caused by the to-and-fro motion of a roughened pericardium.

    Verb

  • * John G. C. Brainard
  • And there the wild-cat purs amid her brood.
  • * 1840 , The Visitor: Or, Monthly Instructor (page 182)
  • It appears to me, past all doubt, that its [the goatsucker's] notes are formed by organic impulse, by the parts of its windpipe formed for sound, just as cats pur .
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