![]() The name for the color came later, though. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term “orange” started to be used in English to describe cloth and clothing in the 16th century. ![]() This also coincided with Portuguese sailors bringing a sweeter, tastier orange from China to Europe. “China apple” is still a synonym for orange in a number of languages, including Dutch and Ukrainian. But in Europe and beyond, “orange” became both the name for the color and the fruit. Even in China, the orange’s likely birthplace, the characters for the fruit and the color are the same. Why did oranges receive the honor of naming such a standard color, as opposed to, say, pumpkins or carrots? It probably has to do with timing. Pumpkins spread from the Americas to the rest of the world after the voyages of Christopher Columbus, and carrots didn’t become orange until the 16th century. Before that, they were yellow, white, purple, and red, but rarely orange. ![]() It was only after the fruit became synonymous with the color that the carrot became orange, when 16th-century Dutch farmers bred them that way (one myth says this was to honor William I, Prince of Orange, but that’s likely not true). For some people, the most orange object they could think of may have simply been the fruit. With its place on the color wheel, orange commands a special respect, despite the fact that there are plenty of other colors named after foods (think apricot-colored scarves and raspberry-tinted berets). It’s all the more interesting, given that oranges’ exteriors are often naturally green. But it would be even more confusing if oranges were called “greens.” The bright color we associate with the fruit occurs only if temperatures drop while the orange is on the tree.Īnd while oranges can be perfectly ripe, commercially grown oranges are often exposed to ethylene gas to destroy the green chlorophyll in the peel. ![]() Gastro Obscura covers the world’s most wondrous food and drink. Sign up for our email, delivered twice a week.What came first, the orange or.orange? Did someone just make the un-creative decision to name the citrus fruit after its color? (That's how the blueberry got its name, after all.) Or did the color get its name because of the fruit? In terms of perplexing origin stories, this one is right up there with the chicken vs.
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