1213: Before ‘Orange’ Apr 5, 2018


It was mentioned during Color Week how before English had the word ‘orange’ to describe the fruit, there was no word for the color either. This is only half true, so what would have been clearer would have been to say that before this, there was not a unique word for ‘orange’. Up until the word was borrowed ultimately from a Dravidian language via Sanskrit and Old French, people got by by saying the equivalent of ‘yellow-red’: ‘geoluhred’ in Old English. Indeed, ‘orange was only first recorded in the 16th century (or 13th century as a reference to the fruit), but clearly people were not partially colorblind until that point. It is a good example of how people will learn to get by regardless of limitation to communicate the same ideas.
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