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Color or Fruit? The Unlikely Etymology of “Orange”

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Re: Color or Fruit? The Unlikely Etymology of “Orange”

#11
post #3

They left out the best part: The use of the word "redhead," for people with hair that is decidedly orange rather than red, predates the emergence of the color name "orange." Otherwise, they would presumably have been called "orangeheads."

Another factor there might be that "redhead" rolls off the tongue quite a bit better.

I'm sure you can find some sort of rhyme that'll work just as well.

Re: Color or Fruit? The Unlikely Etymology of “Orange”

#13
FTA: "His orange exists only to brighten up tawny, a dark brown."

Almost like orange-is-to-brown as pink-is-to-red. This is more apparent when looking at http://colorizer.org/ and choosing HSV colorspace with H==34, S==80, and varying V==[20,90].

EDIT: reverse pink/red.

Re: Color or Fruit? The Unlikely Etymology of “Orange”

#16

"possibly derived from an even older Dravidian (another ancient language spoken in what is now southern India) root, naru, meaning fragrant. " The Dravidian language referred here is Tamil. The fruit in the citrus family is called Narthangai. The unripe fruit makes a sour delicious pickle. It's such a joy to hear a Tamil word used everyday around the globe.

Read all the way through, didn’t know it would end up at a Tamil word as the origin of naranja

Re: Color or Fruit? The Unlikely Etymology of “Orange”

#18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another factor there might be that "redhead" rolls off the tongue quite a bit better.

I'm sure you can find some sort of rhyme that'll work just as well.

For "orange"? Could you suggest a rhyme?

Re: Color or Fruit? The Unlikely Etymology of “Orange”

#19
post #9

Interestingly, in Dutch, the word is "Appelsien" according to Wikipedia, which seems quite unrelated to any word like "Orange" - this in a country where the royal family is called "House of Orange"?

In Swedish as well. The fruit is apelsin. The colour is traditionally brandgul (fire yellow) but orange (pronounced like in french?) is not uncommon.

Re: Color or Fruit? The Unlikely Etymology of “Orange”

#20
post #9

Interestingly, in Dutch, the word is "Appelsien" according to Wikipedia, which seems quite unrelated to any word like "Orange" - this in a country where the royal family is called "House of Orange"?

Russian as well. It's from silk road merchants calling oranges "chinese apples".
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