If an orange is orange and called an orange, why is a bannana yellow and not called a yellow?
9 Answers to "If an orange is orange and called an orange, why is a bannana yellow and not called a yellow?"
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The lemons would get mad.
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Was the colour named after the fruit, or the fruit after the colour?
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try to eat a yellow !
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The name for the colour DID come from the fruit which came about in the mid 16th century I think. The original name for the fruit was not "an orange" but rather "a norange"; The "n" gradually shifted to the indefinite article. (this happened in french also.) The word "norange" or "orange" was around already by the 14th century and earlier, but only used for the fruit. The colour was referred to as "yellow-red"
As for why yellow is not named "banana" (or vice-versa) is likely due to the fact that there was already a word in existence for the colour before the banana was introduced. (actually, the banana that you buy in the stores today did not even exist until 1903, and you probably only saw them in 1950.....real wild bananas are green or brown...but that is another story!) The word "yellow" comes to English from Old English (1st century.) -
same as why cherries arent called red
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I do not think there is a good answer for your question.It is what it is like so many other things in life.
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The person who discovered oranges lacked the creativity of the discoverer of bananas. Shame.
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But there is a singer with pink hair named Pink.
Best Answer (Chosen By Asker):
Posted by paclark Feb 11th, 2012 at 12:42PM
I think the guy in charge of names got lazy when he got to oranges. He looked at it, had a mental block, then said Orange.
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