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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”

#81
post #46
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."

Similarly, the birds called redbreasts, whose chests are orange as well

A robin orangebreast in a cage

Puts all heaven in a rage

simply doesn’t have the same punch.

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

#82

In 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.

"Clementines"[1] are a fruit related to oranges that are commonly sold in grocery stores where I live, but the country they are sourced in varies. I've found the best ones seem to be from Portugal or Spain.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clementine

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

#83
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Bitter oranges make the best marmalade

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

#84
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are linking to a site that is known to spread falsehoods?

yes the site is anathema to indian marxists please argue on merits of the content of the article if you think there is something false please point to the specifics

Can you please not use HN for ideological and nationalistic argument? This is definitely not what the site is for, and you've done it a lot already.

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

#85
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Turkish, orange is called „Portakal“. Reason is, this fruit was introduced to Ottoman soil by Portuguese sailors. Probably Turkish people heard the name first from North African Arabs living in Ottoman Empire, and they started to use this word.

Kind of the same concept as in Swedish with ”apelsin” for orange (the fruit). apel + sin = Apple from China.

I was reading comments to see if anybody mentioned the Russian words for orange color and fruit. "apelsin" is the word for the fruit and must have come over from Western Europe but the word for the color is "oranzhevuy" which is just "naranj" with the adjective suffix.
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