saffron

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)A plant of species Crocus sativus, a crocus.

   “Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard, spikenard and saffron […]”

   “2009, D. H. Sanaeinejad, S. N. Hosseini, Regression Models for Saffron Yields in Iran, Daoliang Li, Chunjiang Zhao (editors), Computer and Computing Technologies in Agriculture II, Volume 1, page 510, Usually the maximum temperature for October, November and December in the southern parts of Khorassan–the main saffron growing area of the Iran-does not exceed 20°C, while the minimum temperature reaches 0°C.”

2. (countable, uncountable)A spice (seasoning) and colouring agent made from the stigma and part of the style of the plant, sometimes or formerly also used as a dye and insect repellent.

   “I must have saffron to colour the warden pies […]”

   “Saffron is not included in American and British pharmacopoeias, but some Indian medical formulae still include it.”

   “According to ancient legend, a Greek girl, partaking of saffron for an entire week, could not resist a lover.”

   “Saffron is the stigma of the crocus flower, which is harvested by hand, dried, and sold either in strands or ground to powder.[…]Of all the medieval spices, saffron was the most expensive, which is not surprising given that 70,000 flowers only yield one pound of dried stigmas. In the European cookbooks of the late Middle Ages, nearly all of which which reflect refined upper-class dining, saffron is ubiquitous.”

3. (countable, uncountable)An orange-yellow colour, the colour of a lion's pelt.

   “[…] The stately Ram Shone thro’ the Mead, in native Purple clad, Or milder Saffron […]”

   “[…] the girls locked up Echo Lodge again and went away in the perfect half hour that follows the rose and saffron of a winter sunset.”

   “These colours might have been expressly designed—by dissonance as much as harmony—for juxtaposition against those pouring down in brilliant rays of light from the Tiepolo; subtle yet penetrating pinks and greys, light blue turning almost to lavender, rich saffrons and cinnamons melting into bronze and gold.”

   “The classical shades of Antiquity were the most prevalent, but along with the Venetian reds and Egyptian blues, the saffrons and ochres and indigos, were more delicate hues: of pink and cream and lilac, like shells littered upon the shore.”

   “On another occasion, H-pop singer Kanhiya Mittal sang a duet with a BJP lawmaker whose lyrics read “the saffron is getting deeper”, a reference to the colour of Hinduism and the BJP's own party colours, […]”

adj

1. Having an orange-yellow colour.

   “For ioyfull thoughts, vse funerall deedes”

   “1794, Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho, London: G.G. & J. Robinson, Volume 1, Chapter 9, p. 256, The sun was now set; but, under the dark branches of the almond trees, was seen the saffron glow of the west, spreading beyond the twilight of middle air.”

   “[…] it was half-past four, and the gray day was dying gloriously, its western clouds all broken into narrowing purple strata before a wide-spreading saffron clearness […]”

   “The jacket was brown but had turned saffron where it had been soaked by Lal’s sweat.”

2. Associated with Hinduism, Hindus or Hindu nationalism.

   “Saffron voters will certainly respond to the Sena chief’s call to support this alliance.”

   “That is when he decided it was time to turn saffron, though it took him another ten years to formally join the BJP in 2014.”

verb

1. To add saffron to (a food), for taste, colour etc.

   “saffroned water, saffroned rice”

   “Saffrond wyne bryngeth mirthe, and taketh away Melancholines […]”

   “Well-saffroned was that barley-soup!”

2. To give a saffron colour to (something).

   “My dreadful thoughts been drawen vpon my face, In blotted lines with ages iron pen, The lothlie morpheu saffroned the place, Where beuties damaske daz’d the eies of men.”

   “Or like the twifold-twynned Geminy, In their star-gilded gyrdle strongly tyed, Chayn’d by their saffrond tresses in the sky, Standing to guard the sun-coche in his pride.”

   “We accept the perfect stillness of the ground, And the vision of a sunset-saffroned sea.”

3. To give a saffron colour to (something).

   “The other part Northern, & ful of mountaines, a very rude and homely kinde of people doth inhabite, which are called the redshankes or wilde Scottes. They be clothed with a mantel and shyrte saffroned, after the Irishe manner, going bare legged to the knée.”

   “Thee next day foloing lustring Aurora lay shymring, Her saffrond mattresse leauing to her bedfelo Tithon.”

   “1638, uncredited translator, Historie Naturall and Experimentall, of Life and Death by Francis Bacon, London: William Lee and Humphrey Mosley, p. 244, The same Irish, use to weare Saffroned Linnen, and Shirts; Which though it were, at first, devised to prevent Vermine, yet, howsoever, I take it, to be very usefull for Lengthening of Life […]”

4. To give a saffron colour to (something).

   “His horse was harnished with leaden chaines, hauing the out-side guilt, or at least saffrond in stead of guilt, to decypher a holie or golden pretence of a couetous purpose […]”

   “And like vile stones lying in saffrond tinne,”

   “Or warts, or wheales, it hangs upon her skinne.”

5. (figuratively)To embellish.

   “Saffroning the rest of the account are several other regionalisms: agin for against, hit for the expletive it, knowed as a preterite, and no use to say not bin' (a fascinating doubling of the negative).”

   “He saffrons his speech with Latin which he knows all by rote.”

   “The Nun's Priest's rhetorical devices, too numerous to catalogue exhaustively, are of two kinds: first, the heroic-historical, beginning with the setting of the occasion in a time sequence that starts with the Creation, saffroning the high points with apostrophes and epic similes, and culminating with a chase in which Chauntecleer's fall proves to have the "cosmic reverberations" required by epic standards […]”

name

1. A female given name from English; a rare flower name from the saffron.

   “The bad thing was she took my son Skiff with her. It's a dumb name I know, but at the time he was born all the kids were being called things like Sky and Saffron and Powie, and I was really sold on sailing.”