Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.12868

c10.12868

SAFFLOWER, s. The flowers of the annual *Carthamus tinctorius*, L. (N.O. *Compositae*), a considerable article of export from India for use of a red dye, and sometimes, from the resemblance of the dried flowers to saffron, termed ‘bastard saffron.’ The colouring matter of safflower is the basis of *rouge*. The name is a curious modification of words by the ‘striving after meaning.’ For it points, in the first half of the name, to the analogy with saffron, and in the second half, to the object of trade being a flower. But neither one nor the other of these meanings forms any real element in the word. *Safflower* appears to be an eventual corruption of the Arabic name of the thing, *‘usfur*. This word we find in medieval trade-lists (*e.g.* in Pegolotti) to take various forms such as *asfiore*, *asfrole*, *astifore*, *zaffrole*, *saffiore*; from the last of which the transition to *safflower* is natural. In the old Latin translation of Avicenna it seems to be called *Crocus hortulanus*, for the corresponding Arabic is given *hasfor*. Another Arabic name for this article is *kurṭum*, which we presume to be the origin of the botanist's *carthamus*. In Hind. it is called *kusumbha* or *kusum*. Bretschneider remarks that though the two plants, saffron and safflower, have not the slightest resemblance, and belong to two different families and classes of the nat. system, there has been a certain confusion between them among almost all nations, including the Chinese.