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crocus

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: Crocus

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Pronunciation

Etymology 1

Learned borrowing from Latin crocus, from Ancient Greek κρόκος (krókos, “crocus”), from an ancient Semitic language.

Noun

crocus (plural crocuses or croci or crocus or crocusses)

  2. A perennial flowering plant (of the genus Crocus in the Iridaceae family). Saffron is obtained from the stamens of Crocus sativus.
    • [a. 1881, William B[allantyne] Hodgson, “Noun”, in Errors in the Use of English, Edinburgh: David Douglas, published 1881, part II (Accidence), page 70:
      Other foreign terms have become so thoroughly Anglicised as to adopt English plurals, and it is sometimes difficult to decide whether the English or the original foreign form is the more correct. None but a pedant would speak of ‘the chori of an opera,’ ‘the croci in a garden,’ or ‘the dogmata of the church;’ […]]
    • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 128:
      Nothing is more short-lived than the erection; like the crocus of spring, it is there for a moment, and then it is gone; one moment the penis is small, soft, and insignificant, and then in the next it is hard, rigid, and three and four times its previous size.
  3. Any of various similar flowering plants, such as autumn crocus and prairie crocus.
  4. (inorganic chemistry, obsolete) A deep yellow powder, the oxide of some metal (especially iron), calcined to a red or deep yellow colour.
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 2

Perhaps related to croak.

Noun

crocus (plural crocuses)

  1. (obsolete, slang) A fraudulent doctor; a quack.
    • 1887, Charles James Ribton-Turner, A History of Vagrants and Vagrancy, and Beggars and Begging (page 479)
      The characteristics of the crocus or vagabond quack doctor appear to find a sardonically appropriate origin in the Erse cruach-bhas, a bloody death.
    • 1937, Neil Bell, Crocus
      The crocus of this novel is gusty Professor Louis Delfontaine, quack doctor, showman, charlatan and man of parts.

References

  • John Camden Hotten (1873), The Slang Dictionary

Etymology 3

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “From croker?”)

Noun

crocus (uncountable)

  1. (Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago) Burlap.
    a crocus bag

Anagrams

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Catalan

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin crocus, from Ancient Greek κρόκος (krókos, “crocus”).

Pronunciation

Noun

crocus m (invariable)

  1. crocus

Further reading

French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin crocus, from Ancient Greek κρόκος (krókos, “crocus”).

Pronunciation

Noun

crocus m (invariable)

  1. crocus (plant)

Further reading

Latin

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Ancient Greek κρόκος (krókos, “crocus”).

Pronunciation

Noun

crocus m (genitive crocī); second declension

  1. crocus, saffron

Usage notes

Most often, the masculine crocus was used to refer to the plant, while the neuter crocum was used for saffron gathered from the plant. However, this distinction is not universally observed, and the word crocus may refer either to the crocus plant or to saffron taken from the plant.

Declension

Second-declension noun.

More information singular, plural ...

Descendants

References

  • "crocus", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
  • “crocus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • “crocus”, in William Smith, editor (1848), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray
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