What was named first? The colour orange or the fruit?

Answer 1

The colour, as the orange wasn't 'discovered' as such by Europe until much later.

The english translation became orange to help people know the name of it almost instantly.

Answer 2

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

Answer 3

The fruit....an orange was originally call 'a norange' and this became corrupted to 'an orange as time went by. The colour, therefore, must have come after this name change and so the the fruit came first.

Answer 4

Orange fruit was named first,,why you may ask ,,
in most languages orange fruit is named differently ,and the colour is named same as the fruit,, ie
in my language orange fruit is called Portokal and the colour also is the same,,unlike in the primary colours, black brown,red, green and navy,rest of the colours are made up from these primary colours ,ie Apple green,
summer blue,tangerine,peach ,orange,sky blue,sand,
Get the point,,lol

Answer 5

The colour orange derives originally from the Sanskrit word narangah for the fruit, whose name moved westwards through Persian narang and Arabic naranj to Spanish (the Arabs imported it into Europe via Moorish Spain in medieval times); in French it became corrupted to orange, in part by the process called metanalysis but also through being strongly influenced by the name of the town of Orange in south-eastern France which used to be a centre of the orange trade.

Answer 6

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

EDIT: I'm sorry... my answer is exactly the same as one of the user "NotSure". So you can disqualify my answer.

Answer 7

I think it was the fruit and then they named the colour after this.

Answer 8

This may surprise you, but the color was actually named after the fruit.

The word originally came from an ancient Sanskrit word "naranga" for orange tree, and then came through Arabic as "naranj", to old French as "orenge".

It was then borrowed by the English language as "orange" and used to describe the color. This replaced the Middle English term "geoluhread", which had previously been used to describe that color (Geoluhread literally means yellow-orange).

Answer 9

All I know is Adam came before Eve. He named all the creatures of the air and the plants of the ground as God allowed him to do. So I say the plant/fruit....even it the Europeans didn't discover until the year whatever, it had to be in existence somewhere (with it colour)!!!!

Answer 10

the fruit was there first.... english language and thus the word orange came way later