crocus (metallorum), n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

crocus (metallorum) n.

also croacus, crockus, crocus man, crokus

[? pun on croak us (though croak, to die or kill is first recorded slightly later), but OED suggests ‘the Latinized surname of Dr Helkiah Crooke, author of a Description of the Body of Man, 1615, Instruments of Chirurgery, 1631, etc ...’. The quack implication suggests a further pun on hocus-pocus. Note fairground use, crocus, a doctor, a herbalist, a miracle-worker; market use, a fair-weather trader who only works during the spring or summer (f. the flower). Metallorum, lit. ‘of metals’ plays on crocus metallorum or crocus antimonii, which are more or less impure oxysulphides of antimony, obtained by calcination]

1. (orig. milit.) a doctor, a surgeon, esp. a quack; also attrib.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Crocus, or Crocus metallorum, a nick name for a surgeon of the army and navy.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1839		W.A. Miles Poverty, Mendicity and Crime; Report 156: There are men pretending to be doctors [...] They go decently dressed, and are called crocusses.
1842		Cheltenham Chron. 3 Nov. 4/3: Dr Crocus is here, the celebrated Dr Crocus. Doctor Crocus has come all this way to cure you.
1852		Kendal Mercury 3 Apr. 6/1: There’s a tidy swarm of maunderers (beggars) and molls on the chanting lark (singing) [...] sharpers (razor-grinders), and crocusses (quack doctors).
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 27: CROKUS, a quack or travelling doctor.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 22: crokus A doctor. ‘The cove sold a stiff un to a crokus for twenty cases,’ the rogue sold a corpse to a doctor for twenty dollars.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn) 124: CROCUS, or croakus, a quack or travelling doctor.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 145/2: ‘All those men who want to see the doctor, stand up’ [...] and the offficer [...] took down the applicants for Mr. Crokus. [Ibid.] 145/2: We proceeded under charge of an officer to the ‘crocus’ office.
1876		C. Hindley Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack 21: I was educated for a crocus – that, you must understand, is a quack doctor.
1879		London Life 16 Aug. 3/2: Her is a crocus man, or curer of ailments.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 10: The two crocuses are gadding the pad to fence their gammy stuff. / The two quacks are on their beat to sell their spurious medicines.
1884		Leics. Chron. 24 May 12/3: [I] put up with that humbug of a crokus for a deuce of a time.
1893		P.H. Emerson Signor Lippo 81: God bless those crocuses, they cured me.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 21: Crocus, a quack or travelling doctor.
1899		J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 337: Anyhow, the crocus says so, ’n’ I s’pose he knows.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 98/2: Crocus (Thieves’). A mock doctor – a cheap-jack gentleman with a wonderful cure. Simple derivation ‘croak’, to kill, or cause to croak, and ‘us’.
1921		P. & T. Casey Gay-cat 302: Crocus — a doctor.
1930		‘Dean Stiff’ Milk and Honey Route 203: Croaker or croacus – A member of the medical fraternity.
1935		X. Petulengro Romany Life 180: I turned and found myself before a medicine stand at which a crocus, a quack doctor, was demonstrating a magic herb with the usual hyperbole.
1946		S. Jackson Indiscreet Guide to Soho 62: He had started in the markets as a ‘crockus’ (quack doctor) but someone had nabbed his pitch.
1950		P. Hoskins No Hiding Place! 190/1: Crockus. Quack doctor .
1952		C. Harris Death of a Barrow Boy 137: Charlie listened, and outside the crocus (‘barred from Harley Street for saving a Woman’s Honour’) shifted his broken shoes.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
1979		(con. 1920s) J. White ‘Campbell Bunk’ in History Workshop 26: A rich vein of slang which harked back to an older London street culture [...] Words which were not current in ordinary working-class speech [...] crocus-lay (quack doctoring) .
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 194: It seemed the crocuses were shocking me at random.

2. a beggar who poses as a doctor.

1857		‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue 39: The crocusses pad through every wild, to fence the gammy stuff.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 423/1: While he’s going on, a brother Crocus will step up, a stranger to the people, and say, ‘Ah, Doctor –, you’re right, I had the pleasure of dining with Mr. – when the worm was extracted, and never saw a child so altered in my life’.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. 10/2: The padding ken of Sally Flicks, who’s got a new moniker, which is Lushing Loo, is full of bug-hunters, and shallow coves, and fellows on the high fly. The two crocuses are gadding the pad to fence their gammy stuff.
1899		J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 240: One day he is a ‘shallow cove’ or ‘shivering Jimmy’; another he is a ‘crocus’ (sham doctor).

In compounds

crocus-chovey (n.) [chovey n.]

1. a chemist’s shop.

1791		B.M. Carew Life.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 21: Crocus Chovey, a chemist’s shop.
1907		Dundee Eve. Teleg. 11 Apr. 4/1: A ‘crocus-chovey’ at one time meant a chemist’s shop.

2. a doctor’s consulting room, a surgery.

1864, 1867, 1870

Hotten Sl. Dict.

crocus-pitcher (n.) [pitcher n.²]

(UK Und.) an itinerant quack doctor.

1882		C.G. Leland Gypsies [cap. heading] The Crocus-Pitcher.
1882		Lit. World 13 177: One of Mr. Leland’s most amusing interviews is with a ‘crocus-pitcher’ — which is gypsy-slang for a street peddler of quack medicines.
1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1937–84		Partridge DSUE (1984) 271/1: mid-C.19–C.20.

crocussing (rig) (n.) [rig n.² (1)]

(UK Und.) working as a wandering quack doctor.

1781		G. Parker View of Society II 171: Crocussing Rig is performed by men and women, who travel as Doctors or Doctoresses.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 423/2: There’s another sort who carry on the crocussing business, but on a small scale.
1899		Hartlepool Mail 2 June 2/6: ‘You see,’ said the humble practitioner of the healing art, [...] ‘“crocussing” as it is called, is not what it used to be, but sill a faiur living is to be made’.

crocus-tan (n.)

a hospital.

2006

D. Mitchell Black Swan Green 314: Last time we spoke was [...] in the crocus-tan, in hospital.

crocus worker (n.) [SE worker/worker n.¹ (1)]

a seller of patent medicines.

1937–84		Partridge DSUE (1984) 271/1: late C.19–20.
1940		Liverpool Echo 28 Mar. 3/2: [advert] CROCUS WORKER, experienced: state fullest particulars: refs.; good terms.