κρόκος

Forms

κρόκος (krókos) m (genitive κρόκου); second declension^[1] Usually masculine, feminine in Strabo; the neuter κρόκον (krókon) is the yolk of an egg in medical writers.^[2][3]

Etymology

Wiktionary takes it as a Semitic loanword.^[1] Beekes and Chantraine compare the eastern names of saffron, Akkadian kurkānû, Biblical Hebrew כרכום (karkōm) and Arabic كركم (kurkum), with a Sanskrit name of saffron that is itself borrowed, and add, after Émilie Masson, that the Semitic words may be loans themselves.^[4][3][1] Rosół lists it among the eastern loanwords of unknown origin whose Semitic source is doubtful: saffron surely came from the East, its main source in the Mediterranean being Asia Minor, and Masson thought Phoenician traders might have passed on the plant and its name.^[5]

Ancient etymologists derived it from κρύος (krúos, “frost”), because it grows in the cold.^[6][7] From it come Latin crocus and, through κροκωτός (krokōtós, “saffron-dyed”), crocōta (“saffron robe”).^[4][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Iliad it is the crocus flower, named collectively among other flowers.^[9][2][10]

Semantic evolution

From the stigmas of the plant came saffron, a spice and a dye of orange-yellow colour, used for perfume and to dye cloth.^[10][3] Aeschylus speaks of “dyes of saffron” for a saffron robe, and Aristophanes uses the word for the substance itself.^[2][10] Its colour made it a favourite of the poets, who called the Dawn κροκόπεπλος (krokópeplos, “saffron-robed”).^[3][5] Theophrastus distinguishes a white crocus and a thorny plant of the same name, Hesychius records it for cocks with a saffron-coloured neck, and Eustathius uses it for a saffron meadow.^[2][11] Most of its occurrences in the GLAUx corpus come from the 2nd century AD.^[12]

The word survived into medieval Greek.^[13] Modern Greek κρόκος (krókos) is the crocus and saffron, and, in a sense taken from the colour that goes back to Hellenistic Greek, the yolk of an egg.^[14][15]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad names the crocus among flowers.^[9][2]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it for saffron dye and a saffron robe.^[2][10][16]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it for saffron as a substance.^[2][10][16]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus describes a white crocus and a thorny plant of the same name.^[2][16]
• 1st century BC–1st century AD – Strabo treats it as feminine.^[2][16]
• 12th century AD – Eustathius uses it for a saffron meadow.^[2][16]
• Modern Greek – κρόκος (krókos) names the crocus, saffron and the yolk of an egg.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. The crocus, especially the saffron crocus, Crocus sativus.^[2][10]
2. Saffron, the spice and dye made from its stigmas.^[2][10]
3. (metonymy) A saffron-dyed robe.^[10]
4. A saffron meadow.^[2]
5. (medicine) In the neuter, the yolk of an egg.^[3][15]

Word family

• κρόκινος (krókinos)
• κροκόπεπλος (krokópeplos)
• κροκόμαγμα (krokómagma)

Related words

• Latin crocus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
4. ^ a b Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
6. ^ Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Pseudo-Zonaras, Lexicon, ed. Johann August Heinrich Tittmann (1808), Iohannis Zonarae Lexicon, Leipzig: Crusius
8. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
9. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
11. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
12. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
13. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
14. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
15. ^ a b Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli
16. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge