Etymology of the color name "orange"

Question

Etymonline shows

orange

c.1300, from O.Fr. orenge (12c.), from M.L. pomum de orenge, from It. arancia, originally narancia (Venetian naranza), alteration of Arabic naranj, from Pers. narang, from Skt. naranga-s "orange tree," of uncertain origin. Loss of initial n- probably due to confusion with definite article (e.g. une narange, una narancia), but perhaps influenced by Fr. or "gold." ... Not used as the name of a color until 1540s.

I am really interested in more details on why 'orange' (fruit) was chosen to represent the color. Also, if there are sources that systematically deal with names of colors in different languages or changes over time that would be very interesting, too. Colors are an example of a very stable (static) concept with corresponding terms ('main' colors) for which throughout history there had been a need (more or less important) to have words for.

Bonus question is — what was orange called before 1540s in English?

Answer 1

To support the explanation offered by Philoto invoking the intuitiveness of deriving the colour name from the fruit name one can only notice that the phenomenon is a widespread one, observed in many languages and suffering only a few notable albeit easily understandable exceptions.

Here is a whirlwind tour of the various family of names for the fruit and its distinctive colour.

1. The first family is the Anglo French Orange and all its cognates
   • Italian arancia (fruit) => arancione (colour).
   • Spanish naranja (fruit) => naranja (colour).
   • Portuguese laranja (fruit) => [cor de] laranja (colour).
     
     
2. In Europe, the sweet orange was first grown in Portugal in the 15th century ¹ so that the fruit has a different name all around the mediteranean:
   • Greek πορτοκάλι "portocâli" (fruit) => πορτοκαλί (colour).
   • Rumanian portocală (fruit) => portocaliu (colour).
   • Arabic the common word (for the sweet Orange is) برتقال, burtuqāl (the persian نارنج, nāranğ is only used for the bitter varety). The colour name is identical burtuqāl.
   • Napolitan: purtuall². AFAIR the colour name is identical.
   • Turkish: portakal but the colour is turuncu from Persian nârenji (نارنجی) => The bitter variety.
   • Persian: porteqâl (پرتقال) (meaning both sweet orange and Portugal) and nârenji (نارنجی) meaning both the colour and the bitter variety.
     
     
3. In chinese, the colour (橙色 chéngsè) is named after the fruit (橙 chéng, or 橙子 chéngzi) as well.

Exceptions

1. One notable exception is the common case of many northern countries in which the fruit has two concurrent names. an older one taken from Old Dutch appelsien ³ now sinaasappel and a newer one taken from English orange. In which case the colour itself is most of the time a cognate of orange.

   • German: Apfelsine (old) but still present in Apfelsinensaft ‘orange juice’. Now Orange (with Orangensaft). colour: orange
   • Danish/Norwegian: appelsin for the fruit, orange/oransje for the colour
   • Icelandic: Appelsína, colour appelsínugulur (orange-yellow).
   • more to the east: Russian and even Mongolian : апелсин . colour: oранжевый.

2. In Dominican Republic, the orange colour is actually called "mamey" after the local fruit named Mammee. One has to mention though that they do have oranges over there but these are actually green. The Mammey instead is... orange. QED.

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Note 1
^{German Wikipedia
Während die Bitterorange spätestens im 11. Jahrhundert nach Italien gekommen ist, wurde die süße Variante erst im 15. Jahrhundert nach Europa eingeführt, wo sie zunächst fast ausschließlich in Portugal angebaut wurde.
Translation: Although the bitter variety was already known inItaly in the 1th Century, the sweet variety was not introduced into Europe until the 15th Century, where it was grown almost exclusively in Portugal.}

Note 2
^{Napolitan people will tell you that it comes from French "Pour toi" but that's folk etymology}

Note 3
^{appelsien = Chinese Apple. There is no relation with the original sin although many German contemporary oil paintings depict Adam and Eve together with the snake coiled inside an orange tree.}

Answer 2

Wikipedia article states this:

The colour is named after the orange fruit, after the appearance of the ripe fruit. Before this word was introduced to the English-speaking world, the colour was referred to as ġeolurēad (yellow-red).

Why orange? I'd speculate, that saying yellow-red was a bit awkward (was it a mixed colour or, say, half-yellow and half-red?) and oranges happened to be the most natural source of this colour. At least I cannot think of any other. Except for sun, but it's not always orange.

Answer 3

Before the 1540s, orange was just a shade of yellow. Colour is a continous spectrum, so who says there's seven colours in the rainbow? There's six, or twenty, or 20,000 or millions of shades depending on how far you break it down.

Just like, how many fractions are there between 0 and 1? Halves? Thirds? Quarters?

Answer 4

In English the colour Orange clearly used to be called Red; hence Robin Red-breast which is actually orange. Other examples are red deer, red head, red kite and red squirrel.

Answer 5

Orange was called "orenge".

The color 'orenge'. ORANGE = the name of a fruit. (F.,- Ital., -Pers.) The pl.orenges is in Sir T. Elyot, Castel of Helth, b. ii. c. 7. ' "Colour of orenge"' occurs in 1. 7 of a 15th-century ballad beginning 'O mossie Quince,' pr. in Chaucer's Works, ed. 1561, fol. 344, back; and see Orange in Prompt. Parv. O. F. orenge (14th century), Littre; later changed into orange, ' an orange ; ' Cot. The form should rather have been narenge, but the initial 'n' was lost, and arenge became orenge under the influence of F. 'Or' (Lat.aurum), gold ; because the notion arose that the name denoted the golden colour of the fruit. Ital. arancio, an orange, an orange-tree. Cf. Span, naranja, Port.laranja (put for naranja), an orange. Pers. ndranj, ndrinj, also narang, an orange ; Rich. Pers. Diet. p. 1548. Cf. Pers. ndr, a pomegranate. Source: AN ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.BY REV. WALTER W. SKEAT,

It is recorded in the ballad by Chaucer.

O Mossie Quince........ https://books.google.nl/books?id=bO5LAAAAcAAJ&pg=PR16&lpg=PR16&dq=%27O+mossie+Quince,%27&source=bl&ots=V2CwoJVdbR&sig=f4ASsRqsQzW-Q7o9cC1O9dDIi78&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjwgKif94HdAhXC26QKHTO8D1kQ6AEwA3oECAcQAQ#v=onepage&q='O%20mossie%20Quince%2C'&f=false