Saffron

How to spell saffron

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce saffron

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does saffron mean?

1. nounAn expensive yellow-orange spice made from the dried stigmas of a crocus, used to flavour and colour food.
2. nounA deep orange-yellow colour, like that of the spice.

Saffron in a sentence

• A pinch of saffron turned the rice a deep golden colour.

• The monks wore robes of bright saffron.

• The recipe calls for saffron soaked in warm water before it is added.

• The evening sky faded from saffron to a dusky red.

Where does saffron come from?

Language of origin: Arabic

Saffron came into English in the late 1100s from the Old French safran, which the French had taken in turn from the Arabic za'farān, the name for the prized golden spice. The Arabic word referred to the dried red stigmas of the autumn crocus, which were gathered by hand in enormous numbers to yield even a small weight of spice, and that costliness made saffron a byword for luxury. From the spice the word also came to name its colour, a deep orange-yellow, and English has used it both ways ever since. The doubled f is the spelling trap: it preserves the strong f sound of the Arabic and French forms, even though only one f is heard. The same crocus-derived word travelled across Europe, giving Spanish azafrán and Italian zafferano, all carrying that single Arabic root.

How the word is built

• saffron (from Arabic za'farān, the spice from the crocus); no separable prefix or suffix, borrowed whole