is an orange called an orange because of the colour or is the colour orange called orange because of the fruit

Answer 1

Another wacky question, nice. But have to go with Emma's answer, give her the 10 points.................

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 definitely came first — it is recorded in English in the fourteenth century, while the application of its name to the colour only appeared at the beginning of the seventeenth. This raises the question of what people called the colour before they had a word for it: either they didn’t (few things in nature are that colour and there was no bright orange pigment available to artists and dyers until the early nineteenth century) or they borrowed terms like yellow, gold, amber, or red to describe various shades.

Answer 4

funny story
near where i live they grow lots of oranges and mandarines..
you can see the orange groves from the motorway..
any way the first time my parents flew here to see me we we're travelling down the motortway when my dad pipes up "what are those orange things on the trees?"
"funnily enough" said i, "they're ORANGES!!!!"
must be the colour..
in italian they are called arancia.. which is the colour orange and the fruit

Answer 5

They're green in Nigeria too.

The word can be traced back to Middle Persian náranj, from nár, meaning 'pomegranate'. This was brought back to Italy by travellers to the east, where, in Old Italian, it became known as 'narenge', which gradually changed to 'arenge' and then to 'orenge', by analogy with 'oro', meaning 'gold'. This was taken into Old French as 'orange', whence it came into English.

And yes, the fruit came first, followed by the colour.

Answer 6

Emma has given you the correct answer, i was once told that the colour was referred to as TAN before oranges came to this country.

Answer 7

good question although emma i can think of one huge thing that is orange - the sun!

i suspect there are many fruits that are orange in colour not to mention flowers.

Answer 8

Good one Emma. By the way, oranges are usually green in Cambodia and they're still lovely and sweet...

Answer 9

I'm not sure because I'm currently peeling a yellow and am making wine with a bunch of purples,while sitting in a reds tree.

Answer 10

I think it's because of the fruit because otherwise why isn't a lemon called a yellow?