زعفران

See also: زغفران

Arabic

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 (ja'fari, “parsley”).

زَعْفَرَان • (zaʕfarān) m

Declension of noun زَعْفَرَان (zaʕfarān)

Singular	basic singular triptote
Singular	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

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

→ 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

Asbaghi, Asya (1988) Persische Lehnwörter im Arabischen‎ (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–

زعفران • (transliteration needed)

زعفران • (zaʼferan)

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.

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, 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 (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)‎ (in German), München: Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Kommission bei der C.H.Beck’schen Verlagsbuchhandlung, →ISBN, page 9).