زعفران

See also: زغفران

Arabic

Etymology

Borrowed from Aramaic צפר with unattested -ān ending, compare زَعْتَر (zaʕtar, “wild thyme”) and juxtapose عُصْفُر (ʕuṣfur) for a native form from أَصْفَر (ʔaṣfar, “yellow”) of the root ص ف ر (ṣ-f-r).

A Middle Iranian borrowing is also maintained, which invites comparison with Persian جعفری (ja'fari, “parsley”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /zaʕ.fa.raːn/

Noun

زَعْفَرَان • (zaʕfarān) m

1. saffron

Declension

Declension of noun زَعْفَرَان (zaʕfarān)

Singular	basic singular triptote
	Indefinite	Definite	Construct
Informal	زَعْفَرَان zaʕfarān	الزَّعْفَرَان az-zaʕfarān	زَعْفَرَان zaʕfarān
Nominative	زَعْفَرَانٌ zaʕfarānun	الزَّعْفَرَانُ az-zaʕfarānu	زَعْفَرَانُ zaʕfarānu
Accusative	زَعْفَرَانًا zaʕfarānan	الزَّعْفَرَانَ az-zaʕfarāna	زَعْفَرَانَ zaʕfarāna
Genitive	زَعْفَرَانٍ zaʕfarānin	الزَّعْفَرَانِ az-zaʕfarāni	زَعْفَرَانِ zaʕfarāni

Descendants

• Maltese: żagħfran
• Moroccan Arabic: زعفران (zaʕfrān)
• Andalusian Arabic: زَعْفَرَان (zaʕfarān) (from the definite form الزَّعْفَرَان (az-zaʕfarān))
  • → Asturian: azafrán
  • → Galician: azafrán
  • → Portuguese: açafrão
  • → Spanish: azafrán

Borrowings

• → Aramaic:

  Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܙܲܥܦܪܵܢܵܐ (zaˁprānā)

  Jewish Literary Aramaic: זעפרנא

  Classical Mandaic: ࡆࡀࡐࡀࡓࡀࡍࡀ, ࡆࡀࡏࡐࡀࡓࡀࡍࡀ

  Classical Syriac: ܙܥܦܪܢ

• → Middle Armenian: զաֆրան (zafran), զափրան (zapʻran), զաւհրան (zawhran)
  • Armenian: զաֆրան (zafran)
• → Italian: zafferano
• → Medieval Latin: safranum
  • Gallo-Italic
    • → Ligurian: safran
    • → Piedmontese: safran
  • → Old French: safran (see there for further descendants)
  • → Old Occitan:
    • Catalan: safrà
    • Occitan: safran
• → Ottoman Turkish: زعفران (zaʼferan), زغفران (zağferan, zagferan), صفران (safran)
  • Gagauz: şafran
  • Turkish: safran
  • → Bulgarian: шафра́н (šafrán)
  • → Macedonian: шафран (šafran)
  • → Russian: шафра́н (šafrán)
  • → Serbo-Croatian:

    Cyrillic script: ша̀фран

    Latin script: šàfran

• → Persian: زعفران (za'ferân) (see there for further descendants)
• → Swahili: zafarani

Unsorted borrowings

• → Albanian: shafran

• → Czech: šafrán
• → Danish: safran
• → Estonian: safran
• → Faroese: safran
• → Icelandic: saffran
• → Hebrew: זעפרן (z'afrán)
• → Hungarian: sáfrány
• → Latvian: safrāns
• → Lithuanian: šafranas, šafronas
• → Norwegian: safran
• → Polish: szafran
• → Romanian: șofran
• → Slovak: šafran
• → Slovene: žafran
• → Swedish: saffran

References

• Asbaghi, Asya (1988) Persische Lehnwörter im Arabischen‎^[1] (in German), Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, →ISBN, page 145, where Middle Iranian *zar-parān (“gold-wings”)
• “ṣpr⁶”, in The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project, Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 1986–
• “zˁprn”, in The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project, Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 1986–

Baluchi

Noun

زعفران • (transliteration needed)

1. saffron

Ottoman Turkish

Alternative forms

• زغفران (zağferan, zagferan), صفران (safran)

Etymology

From Arabic زَعْفَرَان (zaʕfarān).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /zɑʔfɛˈɾɑn/

Noun

زعفران • (zaʼferan)

1. saffron
   • 1914, Harun Reşit Kocacan, Muhtasar ilm-i kımya: Darülmuallimin ve Darülfünun ile mekâtib-i iʼdadiye sınıflarına mahsustur, İstanbul: Kitaphane-yi İslâm ve Askerı̂, page 254:

     طبیعی بویالرك اك مهملری كوك بویا ، بقام اغاجی ، چیوید ، زغفران جهرى وقرمزدر .

     tabiʼi boyalarıñ eñ mühimleri kök boya, bakkam ağacı, ‍çivid, zağferan[,] cehri ve kırmızdır.

     The most important natural dyes are madder, bloodwood, indigo, saffron, yellowberry, and kermes.

Descendants

• Gagauz: şafran
• Turkish: safran
• → Bulgarian: шафра́н (šafrán)
• → Macedonian: шафран (šafran)
• → Russian: шафра́н (šafrán)
• → Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic script: ша̀фран

  Latin script: šàfran

References

• Meyer, Gustav (1893) “Türkische Studien. I. Die griechischen und romanischen Bestandtheile im Wortschatze des Osmanisch-Türkischen”, in Sitzungsberichte der philosophisch-historischen Classe der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften (in German), volume 128, Wien: In Commission bei F. Tempsky, page 9, makes the claim that صفران (safran) is a Europeanized variant, but the variation is native Turkish; see Azerbaijani zəngin.
• Kélékian, Diran (1911) “زعفران”, in Dictionnaire turc-français‎^[2], Constantinople: Mihran, page 644b
• Nişanyan, Sevan (2002–) “safran”, in Nişanyan Sözlük, phantasizes the variation with ص (ṣ) to have been present in Arabic, citing Asbaghi, Asya (1988) Persische Lehnwörter im Arabischen‎^[3] (in German), Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, →ISBN, which is known as unseriös (Ullmann, Manfred (1997) Zur Geschichte des Wortes barīd „Post“ [About the history of the word barīd ‘post’] (Beiträge zur Lexikographie des Klassischen Arabisch; 13)‎^[4] (in German), München: Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Kommission bei der C.H.Beck’schen Verlagsbuchhandlung, →ISBN, page 9).

Pashto

Noun

زعفران • (za'farā́n) m

1. saffron

References

• “زعفران”, in Pashto Dictionary, Peshawar, Pakistan: Pukhtoogle, 2020.

Persian

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic زَعْفَرَان (zaʕfarān).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Persian) IPA^(key): [zaʔ.fa.ɾɑːn]

 

• (Dari, formal) IPA^(key): [zäʔ.fä.ɾɑːn]

• (Dari, formal) IPA^(key): [zäʔ.fä.ɾɑːn]
  • (Kabuli) IPA^(key): [zɑː.fä.ɾɑːn]
  • (Hazaragi) IPA^(key): [zɔː.fä.ɾɔːn]

• (Iran, formal) IPA^(key): [zæʔ.fæ.ɹɒːn]

• (Tajik, formal) IPA^(key): [zäʔ.fä.ɾɔn]

Readings
Classical reading?	za'farān
Dari reading?	za'farān
Iranian reading?	za'farân
Tajik reading?	zaʾfaron

Noun

زعفران • (za'farân)

1. saffron

Derived terms

• زعفرانی (za'farâni, “saffrony”)

Descendants

• → Azerbaijani: zəfəran
  • → Georgian: ზაფარან (zaparan) — Ingilo
• → Bengali: জাফরান (japhoran)
• → Georgian: ზაფარანი (zaparani) — Fereydan
• → Hindustani:

  Hindi: ज़ाफ़रान (zāfrān)

  Urdu: زعفران (zāfrān)

• → Sindhi: زعفران

Urdu

Etymology

Borrowed from Classical Persian زَعْفَرَان (za'farān), from Arabic زَعْفَرَان (zaʕfarān).

Pronunciation

• (Standard Urdu) IPA^(key): /zɑːf.ɾɑːn/

Noun

زعفران • (zāfrān) f (Hindi spelling ज़ाफ़रान)

1. saffron