- Home
- Orange Juice
- Healthy Recipe
- Gourmet Gift Baskets
- Specialty Gift Baskets
- Vitamin C
- Oranges
Orange, the color or the fruit?
The word “orange” is interesting because of its double meaning. Orange, obviously, can relate to the color the fruit, but orange is also the color of the orange fruit. So, we can ask ourselves, which came first? Was the fruit named after the color, or the color named after the fruit?
This debacle is not as complicated as the classic chicken and egg debate; we can look back in history and actually see exactly which one happened first.
If we follow the etymological (study of the history of words) trail, we are able to see definitively that orange the fruit outdates orange the color by at least 300 years.
In the 13th century, Anglo manuscript was the first instance in which orange the fruit occurred as “pume orange’ (this is a derivative of the French “pomme d’orenge”. However, the first use of orange as a color isn’t found until the 16th century.
Interestingly enough, if it weren’t for the fruit orange, we probably would not call the color “orange” by the name of “orange”. The more probable and likely outcome of what we would potentially call orange the color if orange the fruit had not existed would be “geoluread”, which means “yellow-red” in Old English.
Another interesting fact about the word “orange” is that is it widely understood that there is no word in the English language that rhymes with “orange”, making it an interesting choice for a play on words in poems and songs.
Check out more at the Huffington Post
Featured Articles
- The Color Orange?More than just the color of a popular fruit, orange is a color that carries many different connotations and meanings today depending on how it is ...
- Fun Facts About Oranges?• The name orange is actually used to describe the citrus fruit of several different trees including the sweet orange, the sour orange, the ...
- The Osage Orange Tree?Although the Osage Orange tree bears a pleasant smelling fruit, the thorny tree is considered inedible for humans, and squirrels seem to be the only ...
- Orange Origins in China Although oranges and other citrus crops fruits are the highest valued fruit crop in terms of international trade, their country of origin is ...
- Florida The Orange State?Oranges have been grown in Florida since the middle of the 16th century and over 90% of the orange juice Americans currently drink is produced in ...
- Tropicanas New Red Orange Juice?Tropicana has introduced a new line of drinks under the Trop50 name that includes low-calorie and low-sugar fruit juices and teas made with a new ...
- Sweeter Oranges?A new standard for measuring the sweetness of California oranges is hoped to significantly improve eating quality along with improving total orange ...
- Mandarin Orange Production The U.S. Department of Agriculture is projecting an 8% increase in mandarin orange production this year due to a sudden increase in demand for ...
- Top Ten Oranges?Oranges come from small flowering trees with dark green leaves that are originally thought to have come from Southeast Asia and then spread to the ...
- How Fresh is Fresh Orange Juice?Most everyone knows that orange juice is good for you. Nearly every child in the United States grew up being told that oranges, and particularly ...