Saffron

Saffron - (Easton's Bible Dictionary)

Heb. karkom, Arab. zafran (i.e., "yellow"), mentioned only in Cant. 4:13, 14; the Crocus sativus. Many species of the crocus are found in Palestine. The pistils and stigmata, from the centre of its flowers, are pressed into "saffron cakes," common in the East. "We found," says Tristram, "saffron a very useful condiment in travelling cookery, a very small pinch of it giving not only a rich yellow colour but an agreable flavour to a dish of rice or to an insipid stew."

Saffron - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

SAF'FRON, n. [The radical sense is to fail, or to be hollow, or to be exhausted.

1. A plant of the genus Crocus. The bastard saffron is of the genus Carthamus, and the meadow saffron of the genus Colchicum.

2. In the materia medica, saffron is formed of the stigmata of the Crocus officinalis, dried on a kiln and pressed into cakes.

SAF'FRON, a. Having the color of saffron flowers; yellow; as a saffron face; a saffron streamer.

SAF'FRON, v.t. To tinge with saffron; to make yellow; to gild.