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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”

#21

Post by feulix »

schoen wrote: post #10
0x0 wrote: 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"?

This is from a tendency in Germanic languages (and maybe others) to call the orange a "Chinese apple".

The word "sinaasappel" is much more common, which sounds a lot more like the Chinese apple you're referring to than "appelsien". The latter is used in a brand name for fruit juice (used to be exclusively orange juice). Besides that it's practically not used in modern Dutch.

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

#22

Post by XaspR8d »

wyldfire wrote: post #14

Other interesting rebracketing/juncture loss: an napron => an apron a nauger => an auger a nadder => an adder And there's probably a bunch more for future centuries [1]. [1] https://eggcorns.lascribe.net/

One of my favorite cases of reanalysis gone amok is:

[(xocalia + a'tl) => chocola-tl => chocolate => choco-] + [(al-kuhl => alcohol) + (-ique => -ic) => -holic] => chocoholic

which, having contributions from Nahuatl, Arabic, and Latin results in a word with morphemes originating in 3 distinct language families.

On the topic of article rebracketing, I also love "an eke-name" (an extra name) becoming "a nickname".

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

#25

Post by Bellerophon »

jessaustin wrote: post #18
SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

For "orange"? Could you suggest a rhyme?

Oh danger, orange, her hair may be, by the manger, quite, orange she sees, the fire burns bright, the ranger, he schemes, in death she finds evil Sir Granger's deeds.

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

#27

Post by baddox »

wyldfire wrote: post #14

Other interesting rebracketing/juncture loss: an napron => an apron a nauger => an auger a nadder => an adder And there's probably a bunch more for future centuries [1]. [1] https://eggcorns.lascribe.net/

Rebracketing also happened a lot when incorporating words from other languages, from a misunderstanding of the other languages (often the misunderstanding occurred first in another language before being borrowed by English).

"Alligator" is from Spanish "el lagarto" ("the lizard").

Tons of terms from Arabic include "al," the Arabic word for "the":

Alchemy, algorithm, algebra, alfalfa, alkaline, alcohol, alcove.

Rebracketing also leads to some interesting affix/root usage:

The root of "cybernetics" is "cybern," but "cyber" is frequently used to form related words.

"Helicopter" comes from "helix" ("spiral") and "pteron" ("wing"), but it is generally split into "heli"/"helo" and "copter" for the formation of related words.

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

#28

Post by NihilumExNil »

eboyjr wrote: post #2

Orange you glad that etymological histories are studied so in depth?

Cut it out.

I think it could be better. A lot of oversees development has not been documented well and "studied" on an ad-hoc basis.

The incorrect division of Italian "(n)arancia" is debatable, as the similarity to e.g. Lt. aur(um), French or - gold might be completely intentional.

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

#29

Post by cgearhart »

jessaustin wrote: post #18
SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

For "orange"? Could you suggest a rhyme?

It's not as absurd as it may seem. Eminem discussed the topic at one point, although I don't think any of them would fit the bill as a replacement for "redhead": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPcR5RVXHMg
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