Orange
Alexander Shiarella, Staff Writer
October 29, 2009
Filed under Commentary, Top Stories
When asked about their favorite color, people tend to give a wide range of answers: blue, red, green, and sometimes even the occasional pink or yellow. However, one possible answer that tends remain completely unnoticed is that of the color orange. For most of us, except of course crossing guards and Texas Longhorns fans, the color orange spends most of the year hidden behind a veil of disregard and ambiguity, receiving notice only in the context of the occasional display tower of reddish-yellow fruit or swarm of Monarch Butterflies. Nevertheless, as autumn reaches its climax, orange makes its much deserved annual debut, in bags of candy corn, decorative mini-pumpkins, and the temperate changing color of leaves.
While the celebrations of Halloween and Thanksgiving will likely forever be intertwined with the color orange, orange’s influence and humble majesty extends far beyond these secular gatherings. The color orange was named after the fruit, whose name in turn was likely ultimately derived from a word in Dravidian language family, such as the Telugu naarinja, Malayalam naaranga, or Tamil nāram. This word was then adopted into Sanskrit, changing into the form nārangaḥ, and then moved westward along with the fruit, morphing into the Persian word nārang and Arabic word nāranj. The Moors then proceeded to bring the first oranges to Spain, and this sweet globose berry soon spread quickly throughout Europe. Along with modifications in the fruit, many changes in the name were made. The Spanish naranja, turned into the Old Italian melarancio, (mela, “fruit,” and arancio, “orange tree,”) which then was translated into the Old French pume orange, partially due to the influence of a town in northern France called Orange. The word was then brought into the English language, something first recorded in a Middle English text around 1380. Still, it would not be until 1542 that the wonderfully unrhymable English word “orange” would be used to describe the color, long after the fruit was further spread around the world by Portuguese, Spanish, Arab, Italian and Dutch sailors.
Orange (which can either be pronounced the more common way OR-inj or AR-inj, like an angry pirate describing the very fruit which keeps him from getting scurvy) as a color has had a global impact even greater than that of its word or fruit counterparts. Politically, the color orange has had much influence and symbolism internationally. Perhaps the most famous example of this is the Ukrainian Orange Revolution. Orange is also the national color of the Netherlands and (along with white and green) is one of the national colors of the Republic of Ireland, Niger, Côte d’Ivoire, and India. It is also representative of many political parties such as the Orange Democratic Movement in Kenya, the Justice and Truth Alliance of Romania, and the Independent Party in Minnesota. Socially and culturally, the color orange has also has had a key role. In Hinduism and many forms of Buddhism, monks or swamis traditionally wear orange robes. In addition, orange colored flags often hang atom Hindu and Sikh places of worship. Also, orange signifies the Noachide Law against blasphemy, the second chakra, and one of Alice A. Bailey seven different metaphysical psychological types. It is a color that represents a multitude of collegiate athletic teams, the field of engineering, and feelings of energy, warmth, desire, excitement and vibrancy. More practically, prisoners in many American jails are required to wear orange jumpsuits to impede their chances of escape. It is also a sign of notice or caution, often being used near construction sites and in high visibility clothing or safety equipment as well as the US Department of Homeland Security’s second highest terror threat level.
Scientifically, orange is a color that occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum at a wavelength of about 585–620 nm. It has a hue of 30° in HSV color space and is numerically halfway between red and yellow in a gamma-compressed RGB color space. In other words, orange is a sort of reddish-yellowy color. Orange’s complementary color is azure, a slightly greenish blue. The pigments of orange are largely in the ochre or cadmium families, which absorb mostly blue light. In the natural world, the color orange can be found in many different flowers, insects, fruits, amphibians, tigers, mounds of dirt, “red heads”, and the daily appearance and disappearance of the sun. Many different variations of orange exist, including dark orange, orange peel, tangerine, carrot orange, and burnt orange.
In the end, as the excitement and splendor of fall and Halloween pass, the color orange will likely fall out of the spotlight, spending the rest of the year hidden among the many other unappreciated things in life, like arm-chair arms and door knobs. However, even as you continue to make your way through the red and green dazzle of the holiday season and proclaim blue as your favorite color, the next time you eat a carrot or clean the rust out of the bottom of your sink, remember orange and its silent brilliance in the grand scheme of things. Still, perhaps what makes orange so great, is its unassuming yet forever persistent patience. Spending the year in solitude, it leaves constant reminders in the small things in life, an old basketball or the cover of a math book, tolerantly waiting for its turn to come again.
I really enjoyed this piece- very intriguing and informative. Nevertheless, I still cannot abide the color orange. Good job with the research…I love etymology!
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There are so many interesting comments on this site. I just wanted to thank everyone for their insightful comments.
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