purple heart

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word purple heart. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word purple heart, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say purple heart in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word purple heart you have here. The definition of the word purple heart will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofpurple heart, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

See also: Purple Heart and purpleheart

English

Etymology

From the color of the pills.

Noun

purple heart (plural purple hearts)

The drug phenobarbitone when taken recreationally.
(slang, historical) A drinamyl tablet when taken recreationally, popular in the 1960s.
- 1963 March 27, “Drug pills eaten like sweets, says detective”, in The Guardian‎:
  Detective Peter Goodall said the source of the tablets had not been traced. "Purple heart" or drinamyl tablets, were a stimulant drug and habit-forming.
- 1972, Ray Davies (lyrics and music), “Big Black Smoke”, performed by The Kinks:
  And every penny she had / Was spent on purple hearts and cigarettes
- 2012, Pete Townshend, Who I Am, HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 245:
  We were all coming down from taking purple hearts, the fashionable uppers of the period.

Further reading

Jonathon Green (2024) “purple hearts n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Wikious

Boobota

Sagapedia