Orange

[Dr. Goodword]

• orange •

Pronunciation: o-rinj, ah-rinj • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun, adjective

Meaning: 1. (Noun) A sweet round citrus fruit about the size of a baseball, reddish yellow in color. 2. (Adjective) The color of the fruit.

Notes: Today's word has piled up a bizarre history as you will see below. The adjectives meaning "like an orange" are either orangy or orangish. An orangery is a greenhouse. The Orange Order is an organization sworn to uphold the Protestant Ascendency in Northern Ireland. Its members are known as Orangemen, and their doctrine is known as orangeism.

In Play: The noun orange is as commonplace a word today as the fruit it names: "Ancient mariners learned that the ravages of scurvy could be prevented by eating oranges." The adjective also refers to a color that is in every child's crayon set: "You know a pumpkin is ripe if it is orange."

Word History: Today's Good Word was quietly lifted from French orange, which, in turn, was inherited from the Old French phrase pome orenge "orange apple". The word was borrowed from Italian after Italian had shaved off the N from what was originally narancia, and is still naranza in Venice. The original (with initial N) was borrowed somehow from Arabic naranj, which had borrowed it from (Indo-European) Persian narang, which had inherited it from Sanskrit naranga-s "orange tree". Sanskrit borrowed it from a Dravidian language spoken in southern India. The current Dravidian languages include Kannada, where today the word for "orange" is naranji and Malayalam, where it is naranna. (Let's offer Susan Maynard an e-hug for suggesting this, her second Good Word, this one with an elaborate history.)

[Philip Hudson]

Of the two pronunciations, o-rinj and ah-rinj. I suppose o-rinj is correct for southerners while ah-rinj is correct for Yankees. As an undergraduate [many years ago] I changed majors a few times. My final major of math required more "humanities" than engineering did. I took Speech and the professor was a Yankee. He insisted that we pronounce the word orange as ah-rinj. During a short declamation, I used the pronunciation of the hinterlands. It is a one syllable oooorng. The professor said I would get an F if I didn't pronounce it "correctly". I took it up with the head of the department who averred that either of the three were acceptable. The professor just couldn't bear it.
I think he resigned and went back home. Don't mess with hinterlanders.

[David Myer]

Extraordinary story, Philip. I thought the modern teaching was that no-one is right or wrong on pronunciation if it is merely a regional accent. Your professor needs to 'modern up' so to speak. He may be past that sort of personal development.

Now back to orange itself. Is this not one of those words like napron where through spoken usage, the n has drifted from the front, and landed on the back of the indefinite article in front of it? A napron becomes an apron. A norange becomes an orange. I note that the French have also lost the n where the Spanish and Italians have retained it. But the French may have undergone a similar loss because their indefinite article ends in an n sound. Even though the word is feminine in French - so une - the n sound still runs into the next word especially if it starts with a vowel or n.

I think we have discussed somewhere here the oddity that apron has lost its n whilst napkin retains it.

[Slava]

Hobart College (Geneva, NY) and Syracuse University (also NY) both use the color orange in their uniforms, and are thus called the Orangemen.

Though where the names of colors comes from is a difficult question, I'd love to know if we have any idea of where the Dravidians came up with their word. Was it for the color of the fruit, a use of the fruit, a use of the wood, a smell of either or both, etc.?

[tkowal]

This word has a really fascinating history. It's interesting to notice that its Portuguese version is laranja. I wonder where this 'l' came from.

[Philip Hudson]

We had a housekeeper from Jamaica who spoke Cockney, or so she said. She said happle for apple and harrange for orange. Also remember that the Northern Irelanders sometimes wear orange instead of green. An Aussie friend says that in Australia those who wear the green on Saint Paddy's march toward those who wear the orange and when they meet in the middle of the town they have a free-for-all melee.

[bbeeton]

I'm rather surprised that no one has mentioned the Dutch William of Orange, who became King of England, and whose name is still remembered in the name of the College of William & Mary. (But their school colors are green and gold.)

[LukeJavan8]

The royal family of the Netherlands is the House of Orange-Nassau.
King Willem-Alexander often wears an Orange necktie and Queen
Maxima accessorizes in Orange. When visiting the provinces
school children greet them with orange flags and flowers.

[Philip Hudson]

bbeeton: William and Mary's original school colors were orange and white. I read one reference that they were changed to orange and black because the white kept getting dirty. I am not sure of that. They also had problems over their school mascot being an American Indian. They recently changed it to a Griffin. I did not attend William and Mary but have visited the campus.





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[David Myer]

And in Australia, we have a town in central New South Wales called Orange. It was named by the explorer Thomas Mitchell because in the Peninsular war, he had fought under the Duke of Wellington with William Prince of Orange. So it does look as though most of the connections trace back to the Netherlands.

As for your story Philip, from your Aussie mate, I am afraid he may have been winding you up a little. I have been here for nearly 50 years and never heard of an Irish free-for-all conducted in that style.

[Philip Hudson]

David: My Aussie friend was of the female persuasion and very elderly. I knew her in the 1970s when she was visiting her daughter in the USA who, in turn, was my dear wife's Australian aunt. She may have been harking back to a rougher Australia or making it up. In her younger life she was a pianist in a dance hall [In America we call them honky-tonks]. She viewed the USA as a wimpy nation.

[David Myer]

I think I like her.

[Philip Hudson]

I liked her too. Her daughter was often embarrassed by her, but I never was. She played a mean piano. The adjective "mean" can sometimes be a positive word and I use it that way here.

[David Myer]

Yes, I once had a girlfriend who was prone to exposing, loudly and strongly, pretension of any kind. It was always embarrassing but huge fun. I think she might have been described as a Virago.

As for your Great Aunt-in-law, I fear she was over-egging the pudding, perhaps spurred on by the image of Australia portrayed in the movie Crocodile Dundee, that came out around that time. It is still the biggest grossing Australian movie of all time.

[Philip Hudson]

I like the idiom "over-egging the pudding". I had never seen or heard of it before. "Crocodile Dundee" was a great movie.