tangerine

Etymology

It is formed from English Tangier + -ine,^[2][3][4][5] from Tanger, the older French and Spanish form of the name of Tangier, a seaport in northern Morocco on the Strait of Gibraltar.^[2][4][6][7] Barnhart and Etymonline think the adjective was probably modelled on Spanish tangerino (“of Tangier”).^[8][9] The name of the fruit is a shortening of “tangerine orange”, an orange from Tangier, the port from which it was first shipped to Britain.^{[10][11][9][12][13]} Klein and Partridge trace the place name to Latin Tingi, also Tingē,^[6][7] which Partridge takes as probably of Hamitic origin.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of Tangier: 1710, in Addison's essay in The Tatler, which mentions an old Tangerine captain with a wooden leg.^{[2][10][11][3]}

Semantic evolution

The adjective was first a word for people and things from Tangier.^[2][10] The tangerine orange, a small, flattened, deep-coloured variety, was imported into Britain from Tangier;^[2][9][10] Etymonline dates the phrase to 1820 and Barnhart to 1841.^[9][8] It was soon shortened, and tangerine alone for the fruit is recorded from 1842, in the Gardeners' Chronicle;^{[2][11][9][3]} it is now written with a small initial, while Tangerine for a native of Tangier, recorded from 1860, keeps the capital.^[2][3] By 1899 the word was also the name of a deep orange colour,^{[2][9][10][13]} and in the early 20th century it became an adjective of that colour.^[14]

Timeline

• 1710 – of or belonging to Tangier.^[2][11][3]
• 1820 – tangerine orange, an orange from Tangier.^[9] Barnhart first finds the phrase in 1841.^[8]
• 1842 – the fruit itself.^{[2][11][9][3]}
• 1860 – a native of Tangier.^[2]
• 1899 – a deep orange colour.^[2][9]
• early 20th century – adjective, reddish-orange.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small citrus fruit with a loose deep-orange rind and sweet flesh, a kind of mandarin: She peeled a tangerine for the child.^[15][3]
2. The tree that bears this fruit, Citrus reticulata.^[15][3]
3. A reddish-orange colour.^[15][3][14]
4. Tangerine: a native or inhabitant of Tangier.^[3][15][2]

Adjective

1. Tangerine: of, relating to or coming from Tangier.^[3][15][2]
2. Of a reddish-orange colour: a tangerine scarf.^[15][14]

Word family

• tangelo

Related words

• mandarin

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
8. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c d e Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
13. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins