Etymo

orange

A citrus fruit; also the name of a colour.

Played on · Day 25 · word 2 of 5

A fruit carried through several languages

How orange reached English

oldest first

  1. Sanskrit

    nāraṅga

    ‘orange tree’

    into Persian

  2. Persian

    nārang

    into Arabic

  3. Arabic

    nāranj

    into Old Occitan

  4. Old Occitan

    auranja

    into Anglo-French

  5. Anglo-French

    orrange

    into Middle English

  6. Middle English

    orange

    ‘the fruit of the orange tree’

    became English

  7. English

    orange

The story of orange

The fruit’s name travelled through several languages before English.

The route runs from Sanskrit nāraṅga through Persian nārang and Arabic nāranj to Old Occitan auranja. Anglo-French orrange and Middle English carried it towards orange.

Persian, Anglo-French and Middle English are omitted from the cards. The shared card description identifies the word family; the Sanskrit gloss specifically names the tree.

Source

Merriam-Webster: orange

The noun's Word History gives the selected route, intermediaries and Sanskrit tree gloss.

Related

The similar n-r-n sounds make the early forms recognizable even after several borrowings.

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