orange

Etymology

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 color) 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 نارنگ (nārang), from Sanskrit नारङ्ग (nāraṅga, “orange tree”), from Proto-Dravidian *nār- (compare Tamil நார்த்தங்காய் (nārttaṅkāy), compound of நரந்தம் (narantam, “fragrance”) and காய் (kāy, “fruit”); also Telugu నారంగము (nāraṅgamu), Malayalam നാരങ്ങ (nāraṅṅa), Kannada ನಾರಂಗಿ (nāraṅgi)). Originally borrowed as the surname (derived from the place name) in the 13th century, before the sense of the fruit was imported in the late 14th century and the color in 1510. In the color sense, largely replaced Old English ġeolurēad, English yellow-red (compare English blue-green). For other cases of incorrect division (or, elision/rebracketing) like the Italian word above, see Category:English rebracketings.

noun

1. (countable) An evergreen tree of the genus Citrus such as Citrus sinensis.
2. (countable) The fruit of the orange tree; a citrus fruit with a slightly sour flavour.
3. (uncountable) The colour of a ripe fruit of an orange tree, midway between red and yellow.
   orange:
   bright orange:
4. (uncommon) Various drinks:
   1. (uncountable) Orange juice.
   2. (uncountable) An orange-coloured and orange-flavoured cordial.
   3. (uncountable) An orange-coloured and orange-flavoured soft drink.
5. (heraldry) An orange-coloured roundel.
   For quotations using this term, see Citations:orange.

adj

1. Having the colour of the fruit of an orange tree; yellowred; reddish-yellow.

verb

1. (transitive) To color orange.
   It is this composition which reaches a colourist perfection in Le Bonheur with the complementarity of violet, purple and oranged gold 1986, Gilles Deleuze, Cinema: The movement-image, page 118
   Jeff winked his eyes sleepily open and looked out into the cool flush of early morning. The east was oranged over with daybreak. 1987, Harold Keith, Rifles for Watie, page 256
   I looked at him through my binoculars, his little lips oranged with Cheeto dust. 2009, Suzanne Crowley, The Very Ordered Existence of Merilee Marvelous, page 117
2. (intransitive) To become orange.
   Cranes in the distance against the background of the slowly oranging sky 2007, Terézia Mora, Day in day out, page 296
   It will be followed by a disappearance of the cash I had hidden in a sealed envelope behind the oranging Modigliani print over the living room couch. 2008, Wanda Coleman, Jazz & twelve o'clock tales: new stories, page 14
   "What about his eyes?" / "Nothing. No oranging at all, from what I could see. 2010, Justin Cronin, The Passage, page 330