{"id":41998,"date":"2023-02-23T14:51:50","date_gmt":"2023-02-23T14:51:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.halegroves.com\/blog\/?p=41998"},"modified":"2023-02-23T14:53:36","modified_gmt":"2023-02-23T14:53:36","slug":"is-orange-a-color-or-a-fruit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.halegroves.com\/blog\/is-orange-a-color-or-a-fruit\/","title":{"rendered":"Is \u201cOrange\u201d a Color or a Fruit?"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the increased availability of Navel Oranges for sale<\/strong><\/a> you might find yourself wondering about this oddly named fruit<\/strong>. After all, apples are red, pears are green, plums are purple, and oranges are\u2026well, orange!<\/p>\n

Why are oranges so named? You may think it\u2019s because all oranges are actually orange whereas not all apples are red (nor are all pears green or all plums purple). The fact is that oranges (navel<\/strong> or otherwise) grown outside the US aren\u2019t always orange \u2013 some stay green, and some become almost lemon-yellow.<\/p>\n

Grove Navels, Temples, Cara Caras: Why is the Fruit Delivered by Hale Groves Always Orange?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

You won\u2019t find oranges of those colors in your Hale Groves fruit basket<\/strong>, however, because the oranges included in the gift fruit baskets<\/strong> and boxes we assemble are grown in the US (mostly Florida, some California). That\u2019s because our more temperate climate in North America cause the chlorophyll to die off, which turns the fruit skins orange. In tropical climates where the temperatures don\u2019t drop overnight, that doesn\u2019t happen, and the oranges stay green (on the outside \u2013 the flesh is still orange). Here\u2019s a fun fact\u2026the color of the peel says nothing about the ripeness of an orange; if you are handed an orange with spots of green on its rind, it will likely taste just as sweet as one without any green at all.<\/p>\n

So, the question has to be asked: why do we call this fruit \u201corange\u201d when it isn\u2019t always orange? The answer is simple: because the fruit wasn\u2019t named for the color, the color was named for the fruit.<\/p>\n

The Etymology of the Word \u201cOrange\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The earliest recorded use of the word \u201corange\u201d in English can be traced back to the 14th<\/sup> Century, but it goes back further than that \u2013 to Arabic, where \u201cnaaranj\u201d came to be called \u201cnaranja\u201d in Spanish and \u201cpomme d\u2019orenge\u201d in Old French). All of these words were used to describe the fruit itself, eventually morphing into the word \u201corange\u201d in English \u2013 the Anglo world for the citrus fruit.<\/p>\n

So, how did the name of the fruit come to be used for the color as well? The word \u201corange\u201d didn\u2019t start showing up as a color name until early in the 16th<\/sup> Century. Linguists believe that a world to describe that particular color didn\u2019t exist before then, and that people generally referred to the shade as \u201cyellow-red\u201d (which would appear as \u201c\u0121eolur\u0113ad\u201d in Old English).<\/p>\n

Where Did Oranges Originate?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Perhaps it\u2019s not so surprising that it took so long for a name to be given to such a distinctive color in English. The sweet orange, which is a hybrid fruit made up of a mandarin and a pomelo, actually originated in what is now southeast China, where they were cultivated for thousands of years. It wasn\u2019t until the 1500s that they came to the Americas, but Florida is now the second-largest producer of oranges (after Brazil).<\/p>\n

Grove Navel Oranges from Hale Groves<\/strong><\/h3>\n

No matter what they\u2019re called officially, oranges are always called delicious, and Grove Navels (which are in season now) from Hale Groves are some of the best you\u2019ll find! Bright, sweet, and seedless, they\u2019re an indulgent yet healthy treat with big flavor that everyone will enjoy. Order a gift box for yourself or someone else today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the increased availability of Navel Oranges for sale you might find yourself wondering about this oddly named fruit. After all, apples are red, pears are green, plums are purple, and oranges are\u2026well, orange! Why are oranges so named? You may think it\u2019s because all oranges are actually orange whereas not all apples are red (nor are all pears green or all plums purple). The fact is that oranges (navel or otherwise) grown outside the US aren\u2019t always orange \u2013 some stay green, and some become almost lemon-yellow. Grove Navels, Temples, Cara Caras: Why is the Fruit Delivered by Hale Groves Always Orange? You won\u2019t find oranges of those colors in your Hale Groves fruit basket, however, because the oranges included in the gift fruit baskets and boxes we assemble are grown in the US (mostly Florida, some California). That\u2019s because our more temperate climate in North America cause the chlorophyll to die off, which turns the fruit skins orange. In tropical climates where the temperatures don\u2019t drop overnight, that doesn\u2019t happen, and the oranges stay green (on the outside \u2013 the flesh is still orange). Here\u2019s a fun fact\u2026the color of the peel says nothing about the ripeness of an orange; if you are handed an orange with spots of green on its rind, it will likely taste just as sweet as one without any green at all. So, the question has to be asked: why do we call this fruit \u201corange\u201d when it isn\u2019t always orange? The answer is simple: because the fruit wasn\u2019t named for the color, the color was named for the fruit. The Etymology of the Word \u201cOrange\u201d The earliest recorded use of the word \u201corange\u201d in English can be traced back to the 14th Century, but it goes back further than that \u2013 to Arabic, where \u201cnaaranj\u201d came to be called \u201cnaranja\u201d in Spanish and \u201cpomme d\u2019orenge\u201d in Old French). All of these words were used to describe the fruit itself, eventually morphing into the word \u201corange\u201d in English \u2013 the Anglo world for the citrus fruit. So, how did the name of the fruit come to be used for the color as well? The word \u201corange\u201d didn\u2019t start showing up as a color name until early in the 16th Century. Linguists believe that a world to describe that particular color didn\u2019t exist before then, and that people generally referred to the shade as \u201cyellow-red\u201d (which would appear as \u201c\u0121eolur\u0113ad\u201d in Old English). Where Did Oranges Originate? Perhaps it\u2019s not so surprising that it took so long for a name to be given to such a distinctive color in English. The sweet orange, which is a hybrid fruit made up of a mandarin and a pomelo, actually originated in what is now southeast China, where they were cultivated for thousands of years. It wasn\u2019t until the 1500s that they came to the Americas, but Florida is now the second-largest producer of oranges (after Brazil). Grove Navel Oranges from Hale Groves No matter what they\u2019re called officially, oranges are always called delicious, and Grove Navels (which are in season now) from Hale Groves are some of the best you\u2019ll find! Bright, sweet, and seedless, they\u2019re an indulgent yet healthy treat with big flavor that everyone will enjoy. Order a gift box for yourself or someone else today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42001,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[48,47],"tags":[169,44],"class_list":["post-41998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fruit-facts","category-healthy-eating","tag-buy-oranges","tag-navel-oranges"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog2.halegroves.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog2.halegroves.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog2.halegroves.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog2.halegroves.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog2.halegroves.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41998"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog2.halegroves.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42000,"href":"https:\/\/blog2.halegroves.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41998\/revisions\/42000"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog2.halegroves.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog2.halegroves.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog2.halegroves.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog2.halegroves.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}