is the orange fruit named after the colour or the colour orange named after the fruit?

Question

question from my daughter

Answer 1

Before the orange fruit was introduced to the English-speaking world, the colour was referred to (in Old English) as geoluhread, which transliterates into Modern English variously as yellow-red, yellowred, or yellored (all pronounced the same).

Answer 2

Fruit from the colour.

Answer 3

good question! The Color is named after the fruit. The color Orange used to be refered to as geoluhread. literal translation was Yellow-Red. Intresting Huh!

Answer 4

fruit first, then the color

[Middle English, from Old French pume orenge, translation and alteration (influenced by Orenge, Orange, a town in France) of Old Italian melarancio : mela, fruit + arancio, orange tree (alteration of Arabic nāranj, from Persian nārang, from Sanskrit nāra[ndot]gaḥ, possibly of Dravidian origin).]

Answer 5

What a great question! Finding the story from the etymology of this word was also a bit of a challenge. See the excerpt I found below:

"orange
c.1300, from O.Fr. orenge (12c.), from M.L. pomum de orenge, from It. arancia, originally narancia (Venetian naranza), alt. of Ar. naranj, from Pers. narang, from Skt. naranga-s "orange tree," of uncertain origin. Loss of initial n- probably due to confusion with definite article (e.g. une narange, una narancia), but perhaps infl. by Fr. or "gold." The tree's original range probably was northern India. The Persian orange, grown widely in southern Europe after its introduction in Italy 11c., was bitter; sweet oranges were brought to Europe 15c. from India by Portuguese traders and quickly displaced the bitter variety, but only Mod.Gk. still seems to distinguish the bitter (nerantzi) from the sweet (portokali "Portuguese") orange. Portuguese, Spanish, Arab, and Dutch sailors planted citrus trees along trade routes to prevent scurvy. On his second voyage in 1493, Christopher Columbus brought the seeds of oranges, lemons and citrons to Haiti and the Caribbean. Introduced in Florida (along with lemons) in 1513 by Sp. explorer Juan Ponce de Leon. Introduced to Hawaii 1792. Not used as the name of a color until 1542".

It seems that the color was used after the tree. Interesting to see how a word evolves over time, eh?

Answer 6

The fruit came first. The source below gives you more details.

Answer 7

color after the fruit how else would we know what orange would look like.

Answer 8

Fruit first.

Answer 9

what come 1st the colour or the orange
suppose the fruit
think my brain hurts now lolol
respect
shaz

Answer 10

The real question is, why is it called orange at all, and not some other word that could at least have some rhymes.