murex

[ myoo r-eks ]

/ ˈmyʊər ɛks /

any marine gastropod of the genus Murex, common in tropical seas, certain species of which yield the royal purple dye valued by the ancients.

a shell used as a trumpet, as in representations of Tritons in art.

purplish red.

Origin of murex

1580–90; < New Latin, Latin mūrex the shellfish that yielded Tyrian purple dye

We find this in the case of a kind of snail (Murex brandaris).

Schenk's Theory: The Determination of Sex |Samuel Leopold Schenk
But murex or no murex, Purple was discovered by my ancestors.

The Book of Khalid |Ameen Rihani
They belong, mainly, to the two allied families of the Murex and the Buccinum or Purpura.

History of Phoenicia |George Rawlinson
Purple, cloth dyed with a purple dye made from the murex, a shell-fish found in the Mediterranean.

The Story of Sigurd the Volsung |William Morris

He says that Tarentine muslins, woven from the filaments of the pinna dipped in the dye of the murex, rivalled those of Cos.

Needlework As Art |Marian Alford

murex

/ (ˈmjʊərɛks) /

any of various spiny-shelled marine gastropods of the genus Murex and related genera: formerly used as a source of the dye Tyrian purple

C16: from Latin mūrex purple fish; related to Greek muax sea mussel