The word "orange" is a

noun In grammar, a noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, like living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as an Object (grammar), object or Subject (grammar), subject within a p ...

and an

adjective An adjective (abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that describes or defines a noun or noun phrase. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives are considered one of the main part of speech, parts of ...

in the

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

. In both cases, it refers primarily to the orange fruit and the color orange, but has many other derivative meanings. The word is derived from a Dravidian language, and it passed through numerous other languages including

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

and based on Nārang in Persian and after that

Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th geoluread'' in wikt:geoluread">geoluread'' in Old English) or "red-yellow". "Orange" has no true Old English">wikt:geoluread">geoluread'' in Old English) or "red-yellow". "Orange" has no true rhyme. There are several half rhyme">rhyme">Old English">wikt:geoluread">geoluread'' in Old English) or "red-yellow". "Orange" has no true rhyme. There are several half rhymes or near-rhymes, as well as some proper nouns and compound words or phrases that rhyme with it. This lack of rhymes has inspired many humorous poems and songs.

Etymology

The word "orange" entered Middle English from Old French and Anglo-Norman ''orenge''. The earliest recorded use of the word in English is from the 13th century and referred to the fruit. The first recorded use of "orange" as a colour name in English was in 1502, in a description of clothing purchased for

Margaret Tudor Margaret Tudor (28 November 1489 – 18 October 1541) was List of Scottish royal consorts, Queen of Scotland from 1503 until 1513 by marriage to King James IV. She then served as regent of Scotland during her son's minority, and fought to exte ...

. Other sources cite the first recorded use as 1512, in a

will Will may refer to: Common meanings * Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death * Will (philosophy), or willpower * Will (sociology) * Will, volition (psychology) * Will, a modal verb - see Shall and will ...

now filed with the

Public Record Office The Public Record Office (abbreviated as PRO, pronounced as three letters and referred to as ''the'' PRO), Chancery Lane in the City of London, was the guardian of the national archives of the United Kingdom from 1838 until 2003, when it was m ...

. It is generally thought that Old French

calque In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language ...

d the Italian ''melarancio'' ("fruit of the orange tree", with ''mela'' "fruit") as ''pume orenge'' (with ''pume'' "fruit"). Although ''pume orenge'' is attested earlier than ''melarancio'' in available written sources, lexicographers believe that the Italian word is actually older. The word ultimately derives from a Dravidian language – possibly Tamil நாரம் ''nāram'' or Telugu నారింజ ''nāriṃja'' or

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

നാരങ്ങ‌ ''nāraŋŋa'' — via Sanskrit नारङ्ग ''nāraṅgaḥ'' "orange tree". From there the word entered Persian ''nārang'' and then

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

''nāranj''. The initial ''n'' was lost through

rebracketing Rebracketing (also known as resegmentation or metanalysis) is a process in historical linguistics where a word originally derived from one set of morphemes is broken down or bracketed into a different set. For example, '' hamburger'', originally ...

in Italian and French, though some varieties of Arabic lost the ''n'' earlier. Compare Spanish

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical effects on both the s ...

''naranja'' with initial ''n'' The place named Orange has a separate etymology. The Roman-Celtic settlement was founded in 36 or 35 BC and originally named Arausio, after a

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

water god. The Principality of Orange was named for this place and not for the color. Some time after the sixteenth century, though, the color orange was adopted as a canting symbol of the

House of Orange-Nassau The House of Orange-Nassau (, ), also known as the House of Orange because of the prestige of the princely title of Orange, also referred to as the Fourth House of Orange in comparison with the other noble houses that held the Principality of Or ...

. The color eventually came to be associated with

Protestantism Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

, as a result of the participation by the House of Orange on the Protestant side in the

French Wars of Religion The French Wars of Religion were a series of civil wars between French Catholic Church, Catholics and Protestantism, Protestants (called Huguenots) from 1562 to 1598. Between two and four million people died from violence, famine or disease di ...

, the Irish campaigns, and the Dutch

Eighty Years' War The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt (; 1566/1568–1648) was an armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and the Spanish Empire, Spanish government. The Origins of the Eighty Years' War, causes of the w ...

Pronunciation

With ''forest'', ''warrant'', ''horrible'', etc., ''orange'' forms a class of English words where the North American pronunciation of what is pronounced as , the vowel in ''lot'', in British

Received Pronunciation Received Pronunciation (RP) is the Accent (sociolinguistics), accent of British English regarded as the Standard language, standard one, carrying the highest Prestige (sociolinguistics), social prestige, since as late as the beginning of the 2 ...

varies between the vowel in ''north'' ( or depending on the ''cot''–''caught'' merger) and that in ''lot'' ( or depending on the ''father''–''bother'' merger). The former is more common while the latter is mainly found on the

East Coast of the United States The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, the Atlantic Coast, and the Atlantic Seaboard, is the region encompassing the coast, coastline where the Eastern United States meets the Atlantic Ocean; it has always pla ...

. While many dictionaries of North American English include the ''north'' pronunciation as the primary or only variant,

Merriam-Webster Merriam-Webster, Incorporated is an list of companies of the United States by state, American company that publishes reference work, reference books and is mostly known for Webster's Dictionary, its dictionaries. It is the oldest dictionary pub ...

lists the ''lot'' variant first and glosses the ''north'' variant as "chiefly Northern & Midland" for ''orange'' but not for other words in the class (''forest'' etc.). Its '' Collegiate Dictionary'' listed ''north'' first until the 1973 eighth edition, but has flipped the order since the 1983 ninth edition. Merriam-Webster is also unique in including monosyllabic variants ().

Rhyme

No common English word is a full rhyme for "orange", though there are half rhymes, such as "hinge", "lozenge", "syringe", and "porridge". Slang and otherwise uncommon examples exist. Although this property is not unique to the word—one study of 5,411 one-syllable English words found 80 words with no rhymes—the lack of rhyme for "orange" has garnered significant attention, and inspired many humorous verses. Although " sporange", a variant of "

sporangium A sporangium (from Late Latin, ; : sporangia) is an enclosure in which spores are formed. It can be composed of a unicellular organism, single cell or can be multicellular organism, multicellular. Virtually all plants, fungus, fungi, and many ot ...

", is an eye rhyme for "orange", it is not a true rhyme as its second syllable is pronounced with an unreduced vowel , and often stressed. There are a number of proper nouns which rhyme or nearly rhyme with "orange", including The Blorenge, a mountain in

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

, and Gorringe, a

surname In many societies, a surname, family name, or last name is the mostly hereditary portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family. It is typically combined with a given name to form the full name of a person, although several give ...

. US Naval Commander Henry Honychurch Gorringe, the captain of the , who discovered Gorringe Ridge in 1875, led Arthur Guiterman to quip in "Local Note": The slang word "blorange", a hair color between blond and orange, is a rhyme. It is attested from the early 2000s and appears in fashion-related media from about 2017. Various linguistic or poetic devices provide for rhymes in some accents.

Compound word In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme (less precisely, a word or Sign language, sign) that consists of more than one Word stem, stem. Compounding, composition or nominal composition is the process of word formation that creates compound lexemes. C ...

s or phrases may give true or near rhymes. Examples include "door-hinge", "torn hinge", "or inch", and "a wrench". William Shepard Walsh attributes this verse featuring two multiple-word rhymes to

Walter William Skeat Walter William Skeat, (21 November 18356 October 1912) was a British philologist and Anglican deacon. The pre-eminent British philologist of his time, he was instrumental in developing the English language as a higher education subject in th ...

Enjambment In poetry, enjambment (; from the French ''enjamber'') is incomplete syntax at the end of a line; the meaning 'runs over' or 'steps over' from one poetic line to the next, without punctuation. Lines without enjambment are end-stopped. The origin ...

can also provide for rhymes. One example is Willard Espy's poem, "The Unrhymable Word: Orange". Another example by

Tom Lehrer Thomas Andrew Lehrer (; born April 9, 1928) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, satirist, and mathematician, who later taught mathematics and musical theater. He recorded pithy and humorous, often Music and politics, political songs that ...

relies on the /ˈɑrəndʒ/ pronunciation commonly used on the East Coast of the United States: Rapper

Eminem Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem, is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. Regarded as one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all time, he is credited with popula ...

is noted for his ability to bend words so that they rhyme. In his song "Business" from the album '' The Eminem Show'', he makes use of such word-bending to rhyme "orange":

Nonce word In linguistics, a nonce word—also called an occasionalism—is any word (lexeme), or any sequence of sounds or letters, created for a single occasion or utterance but not otherwise understood or recognized as a word in a given languag ...

s are sometimes contrived to rhyme with "orange". Composers Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel wrote the song "Oranges Poranges" to be sung by the Witchiepoo character on the television programme '' H.R. Pufnstuf''.

References

External links

Orange Rhymez!
a website that finds half-rhymes for "orange" {{DEFAULTSORT:Orange (Word) English words Etymologies

Etymology

Pronunciation

Rhyme

See also

References

External links