crocus
(ˈkrəʊkəs)
[a. L. crocus, a. Gr. κρόκος the crocus, and its product saffron: app. of Semitic origin; cf. Heb. karkōm, crocus, saffron, Arab. kurkum, saffron, turmeric. See Lacaita, Etymology of Crocus and Saffron, 1886. Not known as an Eng. name to the 16th c. herbalists, though OE. had croh saffron, Ir. and Gael. croch, from Latin.]
1. A genus of hardy dwarf bulbous plants, family Iridaceæ, natives of southern and central Europe, the Levant, and Western Asia, and commonly cultivated for their brilliant flowers, which are usually deep yellow or purple, and appear before the leaves in early spring, or in some species in autumn. The autumnal species, C. sativus, yields saffron.
| [1398 Trevisa Barth. de P.R. xvii. xli. (1495) 626 Saffron hyghte Crocus and is an herbe. 1578 Lyte Dodoens ii. lv. 216 Saffron is called..in latine Crocus. 1599 Gerarde Catalogus, Crocus vernus flore luteo, Saffron of the spring with Yellow flowers.] a 1639 Wotton Poems, ‘On a Bank’ (Aldine ed.) 101 The fields and gardens were beset With tulips, crocus, violet. 1682 Wheler Journ. Greece iv. 318 White and Yellow Crocus grows wild here. 1728–46 Thomson Spring 529 Fair-handed Spring..Throws out the snowdrop and the crocus first. 1832 Tennyson Œnone 94 At their feet the crocus brake like fire. 1885 Bible (R.V.) Isa. xxxv. 1 The desert shall..blossom as the rose [marg. Or, autumn crocus]. |
† 2. Saffron; the stigma of Crocus sativus. Obs. (In OE. croh.)
| c 1000 Saxon Leechd. II. 244 Meng wiþ croh. 1659 Gayton Longevity 54 Half a Crown in Crocus and Squills Wine. 1710 Lond. Gaz. No. 4658/4 Two Bales of Crocus. |
3. a. Old Chem. A name given to various yellow or red powders obtained from metals by calcination; as crocus of antimony (crocus antimonii or c. metallorum), a more or less impure oxysulphide of antimony; crocus of copper (c. veneris), cuprous oxide; crocus of iron (c. martis; also in 15th c. crokefer), sesquioxide or peroxide of iron.
| [1471 Ripley Comp. Alch. Adm. vi. in Ashm. (1652) 190, I provyd..the Scalys of Yern whych Smethys do of smyte, æs Ust, and Crokefer which dyd me never good.] 1640 Watts tr. Bacon's Adv. Learn. v. ii. 194 If iron were reduced to a crocus. 1641 French Distill. v. (1651) 135 Quench it in the Oil of Crocus Martis made of the best steele. 1728 Nichols in Phil. Trans. XXXV. 481 Both these..Stones scrape into a deep Crocus. 1753 Scots Mag. XV. 40/1 He had put this piece of crocus metallorum into the water. 1799 G. Smith Laboratory I. 92 Take..crocus of copper an ounce and a half. 1842 E. Turner Elem. Chem. (ed. 7) 498 The pharmaceutic preparations known by the terms glass, liver, and crocus of antimony. |
b. The name is still applied to the peroxide of iron obtained by calcination of sulphate of iron, and used as a polishing powder.
| a 1861 Hunter MS. in Sheffield Gloss., Crocus, a red oxide used for polishing cutlery. 1874 Knight Dict. Mech., Crocus, a polishing powder composed of peroxide of iron. It is prepared from crystals of sulphate of iron, calcined in crucibles. The portion at the bottom, which has been exposed to the greatest heat, is the hardest, is purplish in color, and is called crocus..The upper portion is of a scarlet color, and is called rouge. |
4. slang. A quack doctor.
[It has been surmised that this originated in the Latinized surname of Dr. Helkiah Crooke, author of a Description of the Body of Man, 1615, Instruments of Chirurgery, 1631, etc.]
| 1785 Grose Dict. Vulgar Tongue, Crocus or Crocus Metallorum, a nickname for the surgeons of the army and navy. 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 217. 1877 Besant & Rice Son of Vulcan I. ix. 100 Such were the ‘crocuses’, who lived by the sale of pills and drugs—a pestilent tribe. |
5. attrib. and Comb., as crocus-bag, crocus-bed, crocus-bordered adj., crocus-flower, crocus-powder (= 3 b), crocus-scent.
| 1699 J. Dickenson Jrnl. Travels 30 [For clothing] I..had a Crocus Ginger-bag. 1873 J. H. Walsh Dom. Econ. (1877) 365/2 Crocus-powder is made by calcining sulphate of iron and salt. 1878 O. Wilde in Irish Monthly Apr. 211 The crocus-bed is a quivering moon of fire. 1885 Stallybrass tr. Hehn's Wand. Plants & Anim. 198 Helena takes with her..her..crocus-bordered veil. Ibid. 200 When Roman luxury was at its height, crocus-scent and crocus-flowers were used as lavishly as rose-leaves. 1891 ‘M. O'Rell’ Frenchm. Amer. 60 A..crocus-bed effect. |