Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Orange ...

Which came first - the colour orange on the word orange? You would think it would be fairly easy to find out - given we have the internet and other excellent research tools at our disposal. I now know that the only fruit named after a colour is the blueberry. But if that's the case, what about the blackberry?   So, the colour ... orange, in English anyway, is named after the ripe orange fruit - from the French pomme d'orenge.  According to Wikipedia, the earliest known use of the word "orange" as a colour was in 1502 to describe clothing purchased for Margaret Tudor.  Prior to this orange was commonly known as geoluhread - "yellow-red".
In 1512, "orange" (actually "orenge") appeared in a will (filed with the Public Records Office*) to describe the colour between red and yellow.  The report I read did not specify what item was thus described.   

*Still looking ... but it's hard to believe - or maybe not - that the will was consigned to the Records Office because of the use of the word orange. Were all wills sent to the Records Office way back when? Perhaps the only people who would have had wills then were the wealthy and it could make sense that their wills would be filed for legal and/or historical reasons.

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