ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORDS CROCUS AND SAFFRON. 



IX 



the balance of probabilities is in favour of the meaning Saffron rather than of the 

 meaning Turmeric. Whether the word was originally an old Persian name, borrowed 

 by the Semitic races on the one hand, and by the Indians on the other- or a 

 Semitic word borrowed by the Persians, and by them handed on to the Indians it 

 is useless to enquire in the absence of evidence on the point 



First then as to Turmeric. We have seen that the home of this plant is the 

 nd,an Peninsula and islands, where it is known by various names, but never by 



he name f k u nku or any of the other forms assumed that ^^ y 



the : name kurkum which it bears in Arabic. Now although the Arabian writers on 

 MaUna Medua seem to have occasionally confused the Turmeric with other plants 

 o fore lg nongm whose roots afforded yellow dye-stuffs, especially the ChelJonium 

 of Dioscondes, which ,s probably the CMidonium ma/us, L., the plant from Yemen 

 known to them by the name of Wers, " , and the plant they called Hhw,' 

 o^U , which cannot be identified with any certainty, the following passages show 

 pretty conclusively that some at least of them knew not only where the Turmeric 

 came f ro ^ b ut how it came by its name kurkum. "The roots of this plant, called 

 kurkum fj, are known amongst us at the present day, and come from India The 

 Persians call these roots Hurd ^L" K 



Again: "The Persians call these roots Hurd, and the inhabitants of Bassora 

 call hem kurkum and kurkum is the Saffron. They give the name of Saffron to this 

 plant because it dyes yellow in like manner as the Saffron. They brine these roots 

 from certain islands of India and from Yemen."t & 



Tallying as they do with the probabilities suggested by the actual geographical 

 distribution of the plants, and by the great antiquity, so far as regards the evidence 

 we have from surviving literature, of the words karkom and Kp 6 KOS , as compared with 

 the words kurkum and kuhkuma,\ the passages just quoted need no comment. And 



learned „l,„ician in Spain, died in the year ,,64 ».„, " '"'*• "' '" S ^ " K "»"' 



t Il'it Hassan apttd Ibn Bailor, ait intra. The wnrd. " ™<i a™ v >, ■ , 



-C i, ,„e P ,a„, f ™ V, m ,, Ab0 D ,,L SuWn rt„ H.1L™ n «:, S2^t"l^"^ 



was a Spanish physician who flourished about 970-1000 A.D. * Ha5Sa "' 



I .SV<? below. 



