Chapter SABAIO to SAGO of S by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

SABLE-FISH. See HILSA.

SADRAS, SADRASPATÁM, n.p. This name of a place 42 m. south of Madras, the seat of an old Dutch factory, was probably shaped into the usual form in a sort of conformity with Madras or Madraspatam. The correct name is Sadurai, but it is sometimes made into Sadrang- and Shatranj-patam. [The Madras Gloss. gives Tam. Shathurangappatanam, Skt. chatur-anga, ‘the four military arms, infantry, cavalry, elephants and cars.’] Fryer (p. 28) calls it Sandraslapatam, which is probably a misprint for Sandrastapatam.

1672.—“From Tirepoplier you come…to Sadraspatam, where our people have a Factory.”—Baldaeus, 152.

1726.—“The name of the place is properly Sadrangapatam; but for short it is also called Sadrampatam, and most commonly Sadraspatam. In the Tellinga it indicates the name of the founder, and in Persian it means ‘thousand troubles’ or the Shah-board which we call chess.”—Valentijn, Choromandel, 11. The curious explanation of Shatranj or ‘chess,’ as ‘a thousand troubles,’ is no doubt some popular etymology; such as P. sad-ranj, ‘a hundred griefs.’ The word is really of Sanskrit origin, from Chaturangam, literally, ‘quadripartite’; the four constituent parts of an army, viz. horse, foot, chariots and elephants.

[1727.—“Saderass, or Saderass Patam.” (See under LONG-CLOTH.)]

c. 1780.—“J’avois pensé que Sadras auroit été le lieu où devoient finir mes contrarietés et mes courses.”—Haafner, i. 141.

” “ ‘Non, je ne suis point Anglois,’ m’écriai-je avec indignation et transport; ‘je suis un Hollandois de Sadringapatnam.’ ”—Ibid, 191.

1781.—“The chief officer of the French now despatched a summons to the English commandant of the Fort to surrender, and the commandant, not being of opinion he could resist…evacuated the fort,. and proceeded by sea in boats to Sudrung Puttun.”—H. of Hydur Naik, 447.

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, ’us fur. 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 kurtum, 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.

c. 1200.—“’Usfur … Abu Hanifa. This plant yields a colouring matter, used in dyeing. There are two kinds, cultivated and wild, both of which grow in Arabia, and the seeds of which are called al-kurtum.”— Ibn Baithar, ii. 196.

c. 1343.—“Affiore vuol esser fresco, e asciutto, e colorito rosso in colore di buon zafferano, e non giallo, e chiaro a modo di femminella di zafferano, e che non sia trasandato, che quando è vecchio e trasandato si spolverizza, e fae vermini.”—Pegolotti, 372.

1612.—“The two Indian ships aforesaid did discharge these goods following … oosfar, which is a red die, great quantitie.” —Capt. Saris, in Purchas, i. 347.

[1667–8.—“… madder, safflower, argoll, castoreum. …”—List of Goods imported, in Birdwood, Report on Old Records, 76.]

1810.—“Le safran bâtard ou carthame, nommé dans le commerce safranon, est appelé par les Arabes … osfour ou … Kortom. Suivant M. Sonnini, le premier nom désigne la plante; et le second, ses graines.”—Silv. de Sacy, Note on Abdallatif, p. 123.

1813.—“Safflower (Cussom, Hind., Asfour Arab.) is the flower of an annual plant, the Carthamus tinctorius, growing in Bengal and other parts of India, which when well-cured is not easily distinguishable from saffron by the eye, though it has nothing of its smell or taste.”—Milburn, ii. 238.

SAFFRON, s. Arab. za’faran. The true saffron (Crocus sativus, L .) in India is cultivated in Kashmir only. In South India this name is given to turmeric, which the Portuguese called açafrão da terra (‘country saffron.’) The Hind. name is haldi, or in the Deccan halad, [Skt. haridra, hari, ‘green, yellow’].