Balderdash for the Medieval Gay #26

(a compendium of queer words for the modern fag with a passion for the Middle Ages added hebdomadally on the Sabbath day)

26.) Murex
-noun singular, plural murices or murexes

a.) Any of various carnivorous marine gastropod molluscs of the genus Murex common in tropical seas and having rough spiny shells, especially Murex trunculus, the source of Tyrian purple.

[Origin: from Latin murex, "purple-fish" akin to Greek myak "mussel."]

*Tyrian purple (Greek: πορφύρα, porphyra, Latin: purpura), also known as royal purple or imperial purple, is a prized purple-red dye which was first produced by the ancient Phoenicians in the city of Tyre. The dye substance consists of a fresh mucus secretion from the hypobranchial gland of a medium-sized predatory sea snail, the marine gastropod Murex trunculus or Murex brandaris. There are hills outside Tyre and Sidon today which are composed of solid murex shells.