Orange (word)

Orange is both a noun and an adjective in the English language. In both cases, it refers primarily to the orange fruit and the color orange, but has many other derivative meanings.

Before the English-speaking world was exposed to the fruit, the color was referred to as geoluhread in Old English, which translates roughly into Modern English as yellow-red (pronounced the same).

Etymology

Orange derives from Sanskrit "orange tree", with borrowings through Persian nārang, Arabic nāranj, Spanish naranja, Late Latin arangia, Italian arancia or arancio, and Old French orenge, in chronological order. The first appearance in English dates from the 14th century. The name of the color is derived from the fruit, first appearing in this sense in the 16th century.

Multiple sources conjecture that the Sanskrit word itself derives from an unknown Dravidian source, based on the historical spread of oranges through the world (cf. Tamil 'nram', Tulu 'nregi').

There is disagreement as to whether the Old French borrowed the Italian melarancio (with mela "fruit", i.e. melarancio "fruit of the orange tree") as pume orenge (with pume "fruit") (deMause, 1998), or whether it borrowed Arabic nāranj, with no intermediate step (AHD, 2000). In any case, the initial n was lost before the word entered English.

The French shift from arenge to orenge may have been influenced by the French word or (gold) — in reference to the color of oranges — or by the name of Orange, France, a major distribution point of oranges to northern regions. The name of the village did not derive from the word: in Old Provençal, it was known as Aurenja, with the initial sound later shifting (McPhee, 1975) (the original Roman name of the village was Arausio and came from a Celtic water god). The village name and fruit name thus converged coincidentally, one becoming associated with the other.

Later, the sovereign principality of Orange was the property of the House of Orange (later House of Orange-Nassau), which adopted both fruit and color (already associated with the principality) as its symbols. Many things were in turn named after this royal House, which is the present ruling monarchy of the Netherlands.

In Dutch the fruit is known as Sinaasappel or Appelsien (both derived from "Chinese apples"), and words similar to Appelsien are found in a number of Germanic, Slavic, and Ural-Altaic languages. A few other Slavic languages use words derived from Latin "Pomus aurantium", which similarly meant "Golden apples" from Ethiopia to Azerbaijan to Romania -- use words derived from the country name "Portugal", at one time the major source of imported oranges in the Middle East. See this comprehensive discussion about the etymology of the word "Orange" in various languages.

Rhyme

Orange is often noted as one of the most common words in English that does not rhyme with any other word. Although perhaps not well-known, there are two words that ryhme with it. Blorenge is one, and it is a mountain range and town in Wales. The second is Gorringe, which is a surname.

For those who don't believe it rhymes, the closest approximation is door-hinge, although torn hinge, or inch, a wrench, and flange [1] have also been suggested.

Some made-up words have rhymed with orange:
* grorange — a blend of green and the color orange (found in a Mario Brothers novel)
* korange — a hypothetical hybrid of the orange and the kumquat
* borange — "rubbish", "of poor quality" (a coinage of comedian Ross Noble on the Triple J Ross & Terri show).
* atgrynge — the plural of "atgry" , an alternative name for the commercial at symbol (@) .

Tom Lehrer once rhymed "orange" in the verse:

Eating an orangeWhile making loveMakes for bizarre enj-oyment thereof.

This is an example of extreme enjambment and the New York-New Jersey accent's way of pronouncing orange as "ar-ange." Similar was Willard Espy's poem, "The Unrhymable Word: Orange":

The four eng-ineersWore orangebrassieres.

The name of US Naval Commander H. H. Gorringe, the captain of the USS Gettysburg who discovered Gorringe Ridge in 1875, also somewhat rhymes with orange, which led Arthur Guiterman to quip in "Local Note":

In Sparkill buried lies that man of markWho brought the Obelisk to Central Park,Redoubtable Commander H.H. Gorringe,Whose name supplies the long-sought rhyme for "orange."

References

* John McPhee (1975). Oranges. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 0-374-51297-3.
* Neil deMause (April 8, 1998). The Mavens' Word of the Day.
* AHD (2000). The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition, entry: orange.

See also

* English words with uncommon properties