croceus

Forms

croceus (feminine crocea, neuter croceum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin crocus (“saffron”) + -eus.^[2][3][1] crocus is borrowed from Ancient Greek κρόκος (krókos, “crocus, saffron”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it first in Virgil.^[3][4] In the OLD's earliest quotation he has the scents of saffron.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is of saffron or its oil: Virgil has saffron scents and flowers, and Pliny the Elder a saffron sauce.^[2][5] It is above all saffron-coloured, yellow: in Virgil the ram will change his fleece to saffron yellow.^[2] Köbler records a medieval noun meaning saffron colour and egg yolk, from Albertus Magnus.^[4] Church Latin glosses it scarlet, saffron, orange-coloured.^[6]

Timeline

• 70–19 BC – Virgil of saffron scents and of a ram's fleece.^[2][3][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of saffron sauce.^[5][4]
• 13th century – Albertus Magnus has a noun for saffron colour.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of saffron or its oil.^[2][5][1]
2. Saffron-coloured, yellow, orange.^[2][5][1][6]

Related words

• crocus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson