ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORDS CROCUS AND SAFFRON. 



XIII 



the Saffron was first cultivated. If asked when this cultivation began, we can o- ive no 

 more definite answer than somewhere in the lands which stretch from Persia to Asia 

 Minor, not in India or in Egypt. 



Besides these widely-spread names, there occur a good many other words 

 which are sometimes used of Saffron, flower or dye ; most of them being also 

 names of other objects, occasionally applied to Saffron from some sense of va^ue 

 similarity. Mr. Redhouse has shown me nearly twenty Arabic words, said to'be 

 sometimes employed as synonyms for za'feran. The list of equivalents for kukkuma 

 given m Williams' English-Sanskrit Lexicon is almost as long. On examination, 

 these all appear to be of adjectival form, often very compound, and descriptive 

 of the colour or brilliancy of the dye, or the virtues of the drug, or else denote 

 the country it comes from.- Many of them are equally applied to Safflower or 

 to Turmeric, though in the last case the feminine gender is employed instead of 

 the neuter. Professor Monier Williamsf says that, all words meanino- <nia ht ' 

 appear to be used for Curcuma; instances are nisa, sarvarl, rajanl. Of course & the 

 Chinese names for Saffron have no connection with any others, but owing to the 

 comparatively late introduction of the drug into China are of no very great interest. 

 I here remain two words which deserve notice : 



i. Hindustani ^ T , kesar, the bazar name for Saffron in the form in which it 

 comes to market. This word has an interesting history,} which may be here 

 summarized^ Sanskrit ^, kesa, signifies the 'hair of the head.' Sanskrit ^n T 

 keiara, or gr^, kesara, signifies occasionally (i), the 'hair of the head'; compare' 

 the Latin assaries ; more often, (2) the 'mane of animals'; or, (3) the filaments of 

 flowers. From this word in signification (2) come sUrff, kesart, and Snxft 

 keiari, ' a lion,' the maned animal par excellence. From signification ( 3 ), with the 

 addition of en: 'the best,' come Sanskrit 3r*n^T, kesarawara, 'the best filament,' 

 i.e., 'Saffron,' and Hindustani %^, kesar, 'Saffron.' 



The analogy of kesar gives some slight support to the old-fashioned derivation 

 mentioned in botanical books, of the Greek K p6 K0 ,, from the like-soundina word 

 K P 6Kr,, ' a thread,' but as there is no trace of the word k P 6k V having been used for 

 the filaments of flowers in Greek, the link which is present in the derivation of 

 the word kesar, is wanting here. Modern philologists, for instance Curtius, simply 

 ignore the antiquated explanation of k P 6kos, as untenable in the face of the pretty 

 clearly established importation of the word from a Semitic, probably a Phoenician 



source. 



* E.g., kqimirajam. f Sanskrit Lexicon, p. 8 2 8. 



J See the St. Petersburg Sanskrit Lexicon, vol. ii, pp. 43.-436 ; and Piatts' Hindustani Dictionary, p. 8S9. 



