The word ultimately derives from a Dravidian language – possibly Tamil நாரம் nāram or Telugu నారింజ nāriṃja or Malayalam നാരങ്ങ nāraŋŋa — via Sanskrit नारङ्ग nāraṅgaḥ “orange tree”. From there the word entered Persian نارنگ nārang and then Arabic نارنج nāranj. The initial n was lost through rebracketing in Italian and French, though some varieties of Arabic lost the n earlier.
The word “orange” entered Middle English from Old French and Anglo-Norman orenge. The earliest recorded use of the word in English is from the 13th century and referred to the fruit.
Basically red. The names for orange and purple are pretty recent inventions, linguistically speaking. That’s why we call them red onions and red grapes when they’re purple and most “red” birds are actually orange.
Pink as well.some cultures still just refer to pink as “light red”. Some cultures don’t distinguish between blue and green. Some cultures make specific distinctions between blue and light blue. (see Italian; Azzurro)
Fun fact: the color orange was named after the fruit, and not the fruit named for the color.
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It was kept in Spanish tho, naranja.
Same in Hungarian, narancs.
What was the color called before that?
The color was called yellowred before oranges were discovered.
And they spelled it: Geoluread
Basically red. The names for orange and purple are pretty recent inventions, linguistically speaking. That’s why we call them red onions and red grapes when they’re purple and most “red” birds are actually orange.
Pink as well.some cultures still just refer to pink as “light red”. Some cultures don’t distinguish between blue and green. Some cultures make specific distinctions between blue and light blue. (see Italian; Azzurro)