means A color between red and yellow on the spectrum, the warm hue of ripe citrus, autumn leaves, and sunsets; also the round citrus fruit that gave the color its name.

from The word traveled a long road westward: from Sanskrit 'naranga,' through Persian 'narang' and Arabic 'naranj,' into Old French 'orenge.' Along the way the initial 'n' quietly vanished — a phrase like 'a norange' was misheard as 'an orange,' a slip linguists call rebracketing. The fruit reached Europe first; only later, around the 16th century, did English speakers borrow its name to describe the color, which until then had been called something closer to 'yellow-red.'