Which came first: the colour orange or the fruit?
Quick Answer
The fruit. In English, 'orange' named the fruit from about the 13th century, and the first recorded use of 'orange' as a colour is from 1502. Before that, people said things like 'yellow-red' or 'saffron'.
The Full Story
The word orange reached English through Old French, and it travelled a long way before that, through Arabic naranj, Persian narang and Sanskrit naranga, probably from a Dravidian language of southern India. In English it described the citrus fruit from roughly the 13th century. The earliest known use of orange as a colour word comes from 1502, in a record of clothing bought for Margaret Tudor. Before that, English speakers described the colour with words such as yellow-red (geoluhread in Old English), saffron or citrine. The initial 'n' of the older forms was lost along the way, because 'a naranja'-style phrases were heard as 'an aranja'.
Key Facts
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