Greyscale

curlykewkew asked: Why is an orange orange and why is the sky not simply called blue? Is it because blue already has a double or triple meaning?

I found some interesting things while looking up Oranges! Well, -I- found them interesting, I can’t speak for anyone who’s reading this but if they’ve read this far then they know what they’re in for. Caveat Lector, baby.
So, get this: An orange is actually a hybrid of two other fruit- specifically, a pomelo crossed with a mandarin. The strain has been around since ancient times, so ancient in fact that the word Orange actually comes from the old Sanskrit name for the fruit (nāraṅgaḥ). Not, as I think many people would guess, the other way around.

And now, next time you see something Orange, you can bore innocent bystanders with this bit of trivia.

And now, next time you see something Orange, you can bore innocent bystanders with this bit of trivia.

So I suppose a more appropriate question, rather than why the sky is not called blue, is why blue is not simply called sky? Well, as another interesting etymological tidbit, the word ‘sky’ stems from an old Norse word which meant ‘cloud’. Some time after the 1300’s, ‘sky’ replaced ‘heofon’ (i.e. heaven) as the term for the ‘upper regions of air’.

‘Blue’, on the other hand, has its origins in the French language, stemming… oh, I could go on and on about this. Here, let me save us both a lot of time.

Greyscale

Aug. 30, 11

11:36 PM