Doesn’t it seem plausible that “orange” rather comes from Latin aurantium based on the root aurum for gold? (Gold can appear orange-colored.)
Color or Fruit? The Unlikely Etymology of “Orange”
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Re: Color or Fruit? The Unlikely Etymology of “Orange”
#52They 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.
Not as well as ginger ninja or fanta pants.
Re: Color or Fruit? The Unlikely Etymology of “Orange”
#53"Orange pekoe" turns out to have a fairly delightfully obscure etymology as well.
Re: Color or Fruit? The Unlikely Etymology of “Orange”
#54"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
I am wondering why didn't the word percolate to Punjabi language where we call the colour as "santri" and the fruit is called "santra". Hindi has the same word for it, I think.
Re: Color or Fruit? The Unlikely Etymology of “Orange”
#55"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.
the word for rice also comes from tamil arici and not from the chinese mi
unexpectedly even the japanese use a form of the tamil word coupled with the chinese word uruchi mai leading to theories of dravidian japanese linkages or atleast contact and trade
but the debate of whether the tamil word itself comes from sanskrit vrihi is not settled there is the possibility of agriculture spreading to north india from south india and lanka starting 17.5kya and then on to the fertile crescent as well contrary to popular beliefs
Re: Color or Fruit? The Unlikely Etymology of “Orange”
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Read all the way through, didn’t know it would end up at a Tamil word as the origin of naranja
I am wondering why didn't the word percolate to Punjabi language where we call the colour as "santri" and the fruit is called "santra". Hindi has the same word for it, I think.
Or to Kannada, where the fruit is called "kittaLe", despite also being classified a Dravidian language. Kannada and Telugu in general seem to have too many differences from Tamil and Malayalam to be lumped into a common bucket.
The color has always been referred to as "kesari" in Kannada, and translates to saffron.
Re: Color or Fruit? The Unlikely Etymology of “Orange”
#57"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.
> The Dravidian language referred here is Tamil. The "even older Dravidian [language]" referred to in the article is not exactly Tamil. The oldest written evidence we have for Old Tamil[1] dates to the 3rd century BC[2]. But we're told that this word is in Sanskrit's vocabulary, which was already developed well before then. (Some people date the Vedas to the 15th century BC.) That means it probably didn't come from T…
only westerners date vedas to 15 century BC to prop up the fantasy of europeans being aryans and support the aryan invasion theory
indians date it quite securely via astronomical observations in the texts of dhruva the pole star to 3000 BC or 5kya
dhruva was thuban or alpha draconis of draco or the indian constellation sisumara whale dolphin
there were no pole stars from about 2300 BC to 1500 AD but the knowledge of the previous one was preserved in india
the rig veda and some other vedas even predate the dhruva observation but have not been securely dated
Re: Color or Fruit? The Unlikely Etymology of “Orange”
#58"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.
I think it is called an older Dravidian language, and not Tamil because the older Dravidian language cannot be called Tamil. It is vastly different from the Tamil that is spoken today. Calling a language the "oldest" is usually just veiled attempts at asserting racial/cultural superiority that does not really exist. Oscar Tay has a great answer on Quora explaining this, and I cannot state it any better: https://www.quora.com/Is-Tamil-the-oldest-living-language-in...
Re: Color or Fruit? The Unlikely Etymology of “Orange”
#59In arabic the both the noun and adjectives for "orange" roughly transliterates to "bortuqal": برتقالي What's the word for "Portugal" in arabic? "bortughal" (that is also not a good transliteration) برتغال Arabic is my favorite.
In Persian, "orange" as a fruit is also "portaghal". But the color is "narenji". And then there's another citrus fruit quite close to the orange called a "narenj", that you can't usually find in the West.
Interestingly, nobody eats the "narenj" directly. They usually squeeze its juice on a fish dish. It gives it a very nice flavour.
Re: Color or Fruit? The Unlikely Etymology of “Orange”
#60In arabic the both the noun and adjectives for "orange" roughly transliterates to "bortuqal": برتقالي What's the word for "Portugal" in arabic? "bortughal" (that is also not a good transliteration) برتغال Arabic is my favorite.
In Persian, "orange" as a fruit is also "portaghal". But the color is "narenji". And then there's another citrus fruit quite close to the orange called a "narenj", that you can't usually find in the West. Interestingly, nobody eats the "narenj" directly. They usually squeeze its juice on a fish dish. It gives it a very nice flavour.
Wikipedia identifies that fruit as
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_orange
I don't know if I've ever had it or not!
Edit: corresponding Farsi Wikipedia link: https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%86%D8%AC