crocus

See also: Crocus

English

Crocus sativus

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkɹəʊ.kəs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkɹoʊ.kəs/
• Rhymes: -əʊkəs

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)

1. A perennial flowering plant (of the genus Crocus in the Iridaceae family). Saffron is obtained from the stamens of Crocus sativus.
   • 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.

2. Any of various similar flowering plants, such as the autumn crocus and prairie crocus.
3. (inorganic chemistry, obsolete) A deep yellow powder, the oxide of some metal (especially iron), calcined to a red or deep yellow colour.
4. (obsolete, slang) A fraudulent doctor; a quack.

Derived terms

• autumn crocus
• crocin
• crocused
• crocuslike
• crocus of Mars
• crocus of Venus
• prairie crocus
• saffron crocus
• sand crocus

 

Translations

plant of genus Crocus

• Armenian: քրքմածաղիկ (kʻrkʻmacaġik)
• Basque: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: шафран m (šafran), минзухар (bg) m (minzuhar)
• Catalan: crocus (ca) m
• Czech: krokus m, šafrán (cs) m
• Danish: krokus c
• Dutch: krokus (nl) f
• Esperanto: krokuso
• Estonian: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: sahrami (fi), krookus (fi)
• French: crocus (fr) m
• Galician: azafrán (gl) m, sasafrán (gl) m
• Georgian: ქურქუმა (kurkuma)
• German: Krokus (de) m
• Greek: κρόκος (el) m (krókos)

  Ancient: κρόκος m (krókos)

• Hebrew: כַּרְכֹּם (he) m (karkóm)
• Icelandic: krókus (is) m
• Ido: krokuso (io)
• Irish: cróch m
• Italian: croco (it) m
• Japanese: クロッカス
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: pîvok (ku) f

• Latin: crocus m
• Latvian: please add this translation if you can
• Lithuanian: krokas
• Macedonian: качунка f (kačunka)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: krokus m

  Nynorsk: krokus m

• Persian: کروکوس (krokus)
• Polish: szafran (pl) m, krokus (pl) m
• Portuguese: croco (pt) m
• Romanian: brândușă (ro) f
• Russian: кро́кус (ru) m (krókus), шафра́н (ru) m (šafrán)
• Slovene: krokus m, žafran (sl) m
• Spanish: croco m
• Swahili: karkomu
• Swedish: krokus (sv) c
• Turkish: çiğdem (tr)
• Volapük: krok

Etymology 2

(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

• occurs, succor

Catalan

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈkɾɔ.kus]

Noun

crocus m (invariable)

1. crocus

Further reading

• “crocus”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “crocus” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.

French

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kʁɔ.kys/

Noun

crocus m (plural crocus)

1. crocus (plant)

Further reading

• “crocus”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Latin

crocus (crocus plant)

Alternative forms

• crocum

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈkro.kus/, [ˈkrɔkʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈkro.kus/, [ˈkrɔːkus]

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.

	singular	plural
nominative	crocus	crocī
genitive	crocī	crocōrum
dative	crocō	crocīs
accusative	crocum	crocōs
ablative	crocō	crocīs
vocative	croce	crocī

Descendants

• Old Occitan: gròc, gruèc
  • Catalan: groc
    • →? English: grog
    • → Gallurese: grogu
    • → Sardinian: grogu
    • → Sassarese: grogu
  • Occitan: cròc
• Galician: croque
• Italian: croco
• → Catalan: crocus
• → Czech: krokus
• → Dutch: krokus
• → English: crocus
• → Finnish: krookus
• → French: crocus
• → German: Krokus
• → Icelandic: krókus
• → Norwegian: krokus
• → Polish: krokus
• → Portuguese: croco
• → Russian: кро́кус (krókus)
• → Slovene: krokus
• → Spanish: croco
• → Swedish: krokus
• → Translingual: Crocus

References

• crocus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s 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