Is an orange (the fruit) named after the color, or vice versa?

Question

Is the color orange named after the fruit, or is the fruit named for the color, or somethng else?

Answer 1

It appears the fruit came first:

WORD HISTORY:

Oranges imported to China from the United States reflect a journey come full circle, for the orange had worked its way westward for centuries, originating in China, then being introduced to India, and traveling on to the Middle East, into Europe, and finally to the New World. The history of the word orange keeps step with this journey only part of the way. The word is possibly ultimately from Dravidian, a family of languages spoken in southern India and northern Sri Lanka. The Dravidian word or words were adopted into the Indo-European language Sanskrit with the form nraga. As the fruit passed westward, so did the word, as evidenced by Persian nrang and Arabic nranj. Arabs brought the first oranges to Spain, and the fruit rapidly spread throughout Europe. The important word for the development of our term is Old Italian melarancio, derived from mela, "fruit," and arancio, "orange tree," from Arabic nranj. Old Italian melarancio was translated into Old French as pume orenge, the o replacing the a because of the influence of the name of the town of Orange, from which oranges reached the northern part of France. The final stage of the odyssey of the word was its borrowing into English from the Old French form orenge. Our word is first recorded in Middle English in a text probably composed around 1380, a time preceding the arrival of the orange in the New World.

Answer 2

The color was named after the fruit. In Olde English the color was referred to as geoluhread which translated into yellow-red or yellored. The fruit was originally called a Narang in Asia specifically in India. Thru translations over the years we have arrived at orange.

Answer 3

the fruit after the color

Answer 4

there became this fruit first and human beings began calling it "Orange" later whilst people observed this coloration they wanted to call it and at that component they had this orange (fruit) of their hand.. then they theory, yeah it is it,...orange is this ones coloration..

Answer 5

If you have 5 odds and ends on a table and four fall off which is left an odd or an end?

Answer 6

it depends on what came first: the chicken or the egg.

either way, its a good philosophical question.

Answer 7

http://www.thefruitbook.com

Answer 8

either way

Answer 9

interesting question... :)