Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share What Word Came First: Orange the Color or Orange the Fruit? | Smartest Year Ever (Jun 24, 2025)
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
What Word Came First: Orange the Color or Orange the Fruit? | Smartest Year Ever (Jun 24, 2025)
It’s Day Two of Word Origins Week on Smartest Year Ever—and today, Gordy asks a deceptively simple question that will trip up your brain: which came first—the word for the color, or the fruit?
It seems obvious... until you really think about how colors got their names. From misheard articles to centuries of trade routes, today’s episode takes a strange and satisfying linguistic detour through etymology, color naming, and a fruit that changed the English language forever.
Plus: why redheads aren’t called orangeheads, how “a norange” became “an orange,” and what other colors (like violet, peach, and rose) were named after objects, not the other way around.
Word Origins Week continues all week long—5 days, 5 words, and all the strange twists in how our language got made.
Sources:
Bon Appétit. (n.d.). The Etymology of the 'Orange'. https://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/ingredients/article/the-etymology-of-the-orange
Literary Hub. (2021). Color or Fruit? On the Unlikely Etymology of 'Orange'. https://lithub.com/color-or-fruit-on-the-unlikely-etymology-of-orange
IFLScience. (2023). The Color or the Fruit: Which Word 'Orange' Came First?. https://www.iflscience.com/the-color-or-the-fruit-which-word-orange-came-first-72205
#WordOrigins #linguistics
Music thanks to Zapsplat.
#LanguageFacts #DailyFacts #Etymology #WordNerd #LanguageHistory
View all episodes
By GordyIt’s Day Two of Word Origins Week on Smartest Year Ever—and today, Gordy asks a deceptively simple question that will trip up your brain: which came first—the word for the color, or the fruit?
It seems obvious... until you really think about how colors got their names. From misheard articles to centuries of trade routes, today’s episode takes a strange and satisfying linguistic detour through etymology, color naming, and a fruit that changed the English language forever.
Plus: why redheads aren’t called orangeheads, how “a norange” became “an orange,” and what other colors (like violet, peach, and rose) were named after objects, not the other way around.
Word Origins Week continues all week long—5 days, 5 words, and all the strange twists in how our language got made.
Sources:
Bon Appétit. (n.d.). The Etymology of the 'Orange'. https://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/ingredients/article/the-etymology-of-the-orange
Literary Hub. (2021). Color or Fruit? On the Unlikely Etymology of 'Orange'. https://lithub.com/color-or-fruit-on-the-unlikely-etymology-of-orange
IFLScience. (2023). The Color or the Fruit: Which Word 'Orange' Came First?. https://www.iflscience.com/the-color-or-the-fruit-which-word-orange-came-first-72205
#WordOrigins #linguistics
Music thanks to Zapsplat.
#LanguageFacts #DailyFacts #Etymology #WordNerd #LanguageHistory