Orange (word)

The colour was named for the fruit. Before the English-speaking world was exposed to the fruit, the colour was referred to as geoluhread (yellow-red) in Old English and Middle English.

Etymology

The place name Orange has a separate etymology. The Roman-Celtic settlement was founded in 36 or 35 BCE and originally named Arausio, after a Celtic water god. The Principality of Orange was named for this place and not for the colour. Some time after the sixteenth century, though, the colour orange was adopted as a symbol of the House of Orange-Nassau. The colour eventually came to be associated with Protestantism, due to participation by the House of Orange on the Protestant side in the French Wars of Religion and the Dutch Eighty Years' War.

== Rhyme ==

It is widely accepted that no single English word is a true rhyme for orange, though there are half rhymes such as hinge, lozenge, syringe, flange, Stonehenge, or porridge. Despite the fact that this property is not unique to the word one study of 5,411 one-syllable English words found 80 words with no rhymes the lack of rhyme for orange has garnered significant attention, and inspired many humorous verses.

Although , a variant of sporangium, is an eye rhyme for orange, it is not a true rhyme as its second syllable is pronounced with an unreduced vowel , and often stressed.

There are a number of proper nouns which are almost true rhymes, including The Blorenge, a mountain in Wales, and Gorringe, a surname. US Naval Commander Henry Honychurch Gorringe, the captain of the USS Gettysburg who discovered Gorringe Ridge in 1875, led Arthur Guiterman to quip in "Local Note": :In Sparkill buried lies that man of mark :Who brought the Obelisk to Central Park, :Redoubtable Commander H.H. Gorringe, :Whose name supplies the long-sought rhyme for "orange."

Compound words or phrases may give true or near rhymes in some accents. Examples include door-hinge, torn hinge, or inch, and a wrench. William Shepard Walsh attributes this verse featuring two multiple-word rhymes for orange to W.W. Skeat. :''I gave my darling child a lemon, :''That lately grew its fragrant stem on; :And next, to give her pleasure more'' range, :''I offered her a juicy orange. :''And nuts, she cracked them in the door-hinge.

Enjambment can also provide for rhymes. One example is Willard Espy's poem, "The Unrhymable Word: Orange". :The four eng- :ineers :Wore orange :brassieres.

Another example by Tom Lehrer relies on the way many Americans pronounce orange as /ɑrəndʒ/, as opposed to /orəndʒ/: :Eating an orange :While making love :Makes for bizarre enj- :oyment thereof.

Composers Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel contrived a nonce word rhyme in the song "Oranges Poranges", sung by the Witchiepoo character on the television programme H.R. Pufnstuf. :Oranges poranges, who says, : oranges poranges, who says, :oranges poranges, who says? :there ain't no rhyme for oranges!

See also

References