Why are oranges orange?

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What came first, the fruit or the color? In the case of this citrus sensation, etymologists (scientists who study how words are created) believe that the name for the color was derived from the Sanskrit word for the orange tree: naranga. Over the centuries, the word developed variations in other languages such as Persian (narang), Arabic (naranj), Italian (arancia), and Old French (orenge), before evolving into the "orange" we use today.

So oranges are "orange?" Because it was decided that the name they already had was the best way to describe them!  

The orange is one fruit that has had one long history in its journey to our grocery store shelves! It is thought that they first grew centuries ago in what is now China and spread throughout Asia and Africa due to trade — merchants would even plant orange trees along their routes to help prevent their crews from getting scurvy (a type of malnutrition due to lack of vitamin C, something oranges are chock-full of!).

It is Christopher Columbus who is credited with introducing citrus fruits to the Caribbean in 1493, while Juan Ponce de Leon is thought to have brought them to what is now Florida in 1513, after which they made their way across the United States to reach California and Hawaii by 1792.

Did you know?
It is widely thought that the word "orange" is one of the few in the English language with no true rhyme (though "door hinge" is sometimes accepted as the closest one can get). Etymologists attribute this to the fact that the word is derived from Sanskrit and Persian, two languages that have little in common with English.