2698: Arabic’s 3 Words for Orange | May 10, 2024

The word for 'orange' used in many European languages is from a root word originating in a  Dravidian language —look at the Tamil நாரங்காய் (nāraṅkāy) literally “water fruit”— from Southeast Asia, like the fruit itself. This entered most European languages through Arabic نَارَنْج (nāranj),

Many words for the fruit found in the Middle East or Central Asia have another common root like the Persian ترنج (turunç), such as Turkish turuncu, Amharic ትርንጎ (tərəngo), Georgian თურინჯი (turinǯi), and in Spanish and Portuguese, while not referring to an orange, toronja means grapefruit, along with ‘pomelo’. Armenian used to use թուրինջ (tʻurinǰ), but now tends to use նարնջի (narinj). Note that all those examples above belong to completely different language families. 

Despite Arabic having its own, completely different term for it as mentioned yesterday, this does ultimately come from Arabic أُتْرُنْج (‘utrunj), meaning Arabic has had 3 distinct words for oranges in its history. Admittedly, أُتْرُنْج (ʔutrunj) has gone on to not only refer to an orange, but in its true sense of 'bitter orange' is why it led to words for grapefruits and pomelos.