# Are there any languages where the colour orange and the fruit are totally different?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-languages-where-the-colour-orange-and-the-fruit-are-totally-different/514907>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 23, 2009, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-languages-where-the-colour-orange-and-the-fruit-are-totally-different/514907 "2009-10-23T22:30:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-languages-where-the-colour-orange-and-the-fruit-are-totally-different/514907/81 "2009-10-27T17:03:18Z")

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> [@Dr.Drake](#):
>
> “_burtuqal_: oranges [from Portuguese _Portugal_]” ([http://etymological.freeweb.hu/AEDweb.htm](http://etymological.freeweb.hu/AEDweb.htm))The “norange / orange” word doesn’t appear on that website. No time to edit the post before class but I believe _portugalli_ is used for “oranges” in some Southern Italian dialects.

A similar word, _ **πορτοκαλί** _, occurs in Greek (per _My Big Fat Greek Wedding_ 😃 ). I suspect Arabic actually borrowed this word from Greek.

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**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-languages-where-the-colour-orange-and-the-fruit-are-totally-different/514907/82 "2009-10-29T05:57:43Z")

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> [@bordelond](#):
>
> A similar word, _ **πορτοκαλί** _, occurs in Greek (per _My Big Fat Greek Wedding_ 😃 ). I suspect Arabic actually borrowed this word from Greek.

It’s possible, but my first thought is that Greek acquired the word in the same way I imagine Bulgarian did - from Turkish. Like Bulgaria, Greece was part of the Ottoman Empire for hundreds of years and Greek has plenty of Turkish borrow words.

It’d probably take a professional etymologist to figure out in exactly which direction the word traveled.

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