orange

Origin

Inherited from Middle English orenge, orange, from Old French pome orenge (“fruit orange”), influenced by the place name Orange (which is from Gaulish and unrelated to the word for the fruit and colour) and by Old Occitan auranja and calqued from Old Italian melarancio, melarancia, compound of mela (“apple”) and un'arancia (“an orange”), from Arabic نَارَنْج (nāranj), from Early Classical Persian نَارَنْگْ (nārang), from Sanskrit नारङ्ग (nāraṅga, “orange tree”), ultimately from Dravidian. Compare Tamil நாரங்காய் (nāraṅkāy), compound of நாரம் (nāram, “water”) and காய் (kāy, “fruit”); also Telugu నారంగము, నారింజ (nāraṅgamu, nāriñja), Malayalam നാരങ്ങ (nāraṅṅa), Kannada ನಾರಂಗಿ (nāraṅgi)).