Orange Etymology

The word orange derives from the Sanskrit word for "orange tree" (ननरङ nāraṅga),
which in turn derives from a Dravidian root word (from நநநநநநந narandam which
refers to Bitter orange in Tamil).[27] The Sanskrit word reached European languages
through Persian ‫( نارنگ‬nārang) and its Arabic derivative ‫( نارنج‬nāranj).

The word entered Late Middle English in the fourteenth century via Old French
orenge (in the phrase pomme d'orenge).[28] The French word, in turn, comes from Old
Provençal auranja, based on Arabic nāranj.[27] In several languages, the initial n
present in earlier forms of the word dropped off because it may have been mistaken
as part of an indefinite article ending in an n sound—in French, for example, une
norenge may have been heard as une orenge. This linguistic change is called
juncture loss. The color was named after the fruit,[29] and the first recorded use
of orange as a color name in English was in 1512.[30][31]
A closeup of an orange blossom

As Portuguese merchants were presumably the first to introduce the sweet orange to
some regions of Europe, in several modern Indo-European languages the fruit has
been named after them. Some examples are Albanian portokall, Bulgarian портокал
(portokal), Greek πορτοκάλι (portokali), Macedonian portokal, Persian ‫پرتقال‬
(porteghal), Turkish portakal and Romanian portocală.[32][33] Related names can be
found in other languages, such as Arabic ‫( البرتقال‬bourtouqal), Georgian ფორთოხალი
(pʰortʰoxali) and Amharic birtukan.[32] Also, in some of the Italian regional
languages (e.g. Neapolitan), an orange is portogallo or purtuallo, literally "(the)
Portuguese (one)", in contrast to the Italian arancia.

In other Indo-European languages, the words for orange allude to the eastern origin
of the fruit and can be translated literally as "apple from China". Some examples
are German Apfelsine (alternative name for Orange and common in northern Germany),
Dutch appelsien and sinaasappel, Swedish apelsin, Russian апельсин (apelsin) and
Norwegian appelsin.[33] A similar case is Puerto Rican Spanish china.[34][35]

Various Slavic languages use the variants pomaranč (Slovak), pomeranč (Czech),
pomaranča (Slovene), and pomarańcza (Polish), all from Old French pomme d'orenge.
[36][37]