The word ultimately derives from a Dravidian language – possibly Tamil நாரம் nāram or Telugu నారింజ nāriṃja or Malayalam നാരങ്ങ‌ nāraŋŋa — via Sanskrit नारङ्ग nāraṅgaḥ "orange tree". From there the word entered Persian نارنگ nārang and then Arabic نارنج nāranj. The initial n was lost through rebracketing in Italian and French, though some varieties of Arabic lost the n earlier.

The word "orange" entered Middle English from Old French and Anglo-Norman orenge. The earliest recorded use of the word in English is from the 13th century and referred to the fruit.

[–] velox_vulnus@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 days ago

In my mother tongue, also a Dravidian language, narangayi means lemon. Orange is actually called chitt-puli.

[–] Tja@programming.dev 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It was kept in Spanish tho, naranja.

[–] dubyakay@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago

Same in Hungarian, narancs.

[–] scytale@lemm.ee 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

What was the color called before that?

[–] moody@lemmings.world 16 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The color was called yellowred before oranges were discovered.

[–] Cort@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

And they spelled it: Geoluread

[–] Denjin@lemmings.world 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Basically red. The names for orange and purple are pretty recent inventions, linguistically speaking. That's why we call them red onions and red grapes when they're purple and most "red" birds are actually orange.

[–] Jyek@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

Pink as well.some cultures still just refer to pink as "light red". Some cultures don't distinguish between blue and green. Some cultures make specific distinctions between blue and light blue. (see Italian; Azzurro)