The colour orange is named after the appearance of the ripe orange fruit. The word comes from the Old French orange, from the old term for the fruit, pomme d'orange. The French word, in turn, comes from the Italian arancia, based on Arabic nāranj, derived from the Sanskrit naranga.[6] The first recorded use of orange as a colour name in English was in 1512, in a will now filed with the Public Record Office.
Prior to this word being introduced to the English-speaking world, saffron already existed in the English language. Crog also referred to the saffron colour, so that orange was also referred to as ġeolurēad (yellow-red) for reddish orange, or ġeolucrog (yellow-saffron) for yellowish orange. Alternatively, orange things were sometimes described as red such as red deer, red hair, the Red Planet and robin redbreast.
