The Color Or The Fruit: Which Word "Orange" Came First?

What get first , oranges – the plump citrus tree fruit – or orangish – the name of the racy red - sensationalistic colour ?

Perhaps surprisingly , the fruit descend first . The first metre the word “ orange ” was documented in the English lyric was around the late 14thcentury CE , when it was used to pertain to the yield , according to theOnline Etymology Dictionary . It was not until over a century later that “ orangish ” was used to describe a color .

The word record Middle English from Old French and Anglo - Norman “ orenge . ” However , it ’s also apparent that the news has some clear phonetic similarity to the Spanish and Lusitanian name for the yield , “ naranja " and " laranja " , which are linked back to Sanskrit , Persian , and Arabic words for the fruit Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree .

A bunch of other languages use the same parole for the color Orange River and the yield , include French , German , and Hungarian . However , hatful of languageshave separate words . For case , in Scandinavian linguistic communication like Danish , Swedish , and Norwegian , the fruit is call “ apelsin ” or “ appelsin ” , which intend something like " Chinese Malus pumila " . Meanwhile , they describe the color as " orangish " or " oransje " .

As you may see , many European lyric have a word for the yield that links back to thegeographic descent of oranges , among the southeasterly foothill of the Himalayas in a area that encompasses part of India , northern Myanmar , and China . Around the prison term the word come forth in Europe , the fruit was starting to be brought over from Asia by bargainer and appearing in local markets .

Before the foundation of this word , it ’s likelythat speaker unit of Middle English would have referred to the vividness as geolurēad , literally yellow - bolshie .

You might be wondering , why did n’t English speakers name the color “ Orange River ” after another fruit or vegetable , like autumn pumpkin or Daucus carota sativa ? Well , autumn pumpkin were n’t introduced to Europe until the colonization of the Americas by Christopher Columbus in 1492 , while carrot were n’t widely orangish - coloreduntil the 16th century(before selective facts of life , they were sick and snowy like parsnips ) . It seems that mediaeval Europe would be a very un - orangey place .

lease ’s not even get into how the ancient Greeksdidn’t have a word for blueand described the sky as the color of “ copper " .