[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, N.O. 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, all over the Plain.
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. 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. G. Watts, trans. 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 last Stones scrape into a deep Crocus.
1753. Scots Mag., XV. Jan., 40/1. He had put this piece of crocus metallorum into the water to cure them.
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. 217/2.
1877. Besant & Rice, Son of Vulc., 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, -bordered adj., -flower, -powder (= 3 b), -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.
1885. Stallybrass, trans. 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.
