purple prose
nounEtymology Derived from a reference by the Roman poet Horace.
1
Extravagant or flowery writing, especially in a literary work.
- Swinburne is often a very discerning critic in spite of his penchant for purple prose.1932, Harry T. Baker, “Hazlitt as a Shakespearean Critic”, in PMLA, volume 47, number 1, page 198:
- His persecuted characters bleed purple prose, and he persistently confuses an assault on the nerves with a cry from the heart.1960 October 24, “Book of Lamentations”, in Time, archived from the original on 13 Apr 2008, (review of The Last of the Just by André Schwarz-Bart):
2 more examples
- The things, you say / Your purple prose just gives you away / The things, you say / You're unbelievable1991, “Unbelievable”, in Schubert Dip, performed by EMF:
- An antibiological bias […] was stimulated by a flood of popular and scholarly books in the 1960s and 1970s (some awash in deep purple prose) saying that male domination was natural and inevitable.2004, Joan Huber, “Lenski Effects on Sex Stratification Theory”, in Sociological Theory, volume 22, number 2, page 261:
- Related terms
- mandarin, purple patch