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naranja

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word naranja

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1300 Spanish translation of Ibn Bassal's treatise on agriculture, in an early 15th-century copy More words from the 13th century
Borrowed from
Arabic نارنجة via Old Spanish
Ultimate origin
Sanskrit नारङ्ग

Pronunciation

  • /naˈɾanxa/, [naˈɾãŋ.xa][1]

Forms

naranja f (plural naranjas)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish naranja, borrowed from Andalusian Arabic نارنجة (naranǧa), from Arabic نارنج (nāranj), from Persian نارنگ (nārang), from Sanskrit नारङ्ग (nāraṅga, “orange tree”).[2][3][1][4] Vox says the Arabs brought the cultivation of the orange tree to Europe, having taken it from the Persians, and dates the borrowing to the 14th century.[5] Gómez de Silva thinks the Sanskrit word is probably of Dravidian origin.[6]

The same Arabic word is Portuguese laranja, Galician laranxa, Aragonese narancha, Italian arancia and French orange.[7][8][1] Dozy took the Italian and French forms from the Arabic too, altered by aurum (“gold”).[9] The Catalan word, taronja, has a separate source, another Arabic name of a citrus fruit, which also gave toronja “grapefruit”.[1][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest record is the Spanish version of Ibn Bassal's treatise on agriculture (before 1300, in an early 15th-century copy), which explains how to plant oranges from seed: La XXXIX partida es de llantar las naranjas de ssu simiente “The 39th part is on planting oranges from their seed”.[11][12] The BDELC dates the word to the end of the 14th century.[3]

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias in 1611 recorded the derivatives naranjada, a preserve made from oranges, and naranjado, “orange-coloured”.[13] The Diccionario de Autoridades defined the fruit, a cannonball of the size of an orange, and the sweet naranja de la China; it also had media naranja “dome” and the proverb No estrujar tanto la naranja, que amargue “don't squeeze the orange so hard that it turns bitter”, a lesson in moderation.[14] The name of the colour, as a noun and an adjective, is in the Academy's 2001 edition and the DLE.[15][2] Media naranja is also, colloquially, a person's ideal partner or spouse.[2] In Spanish politics, naranja refers to the party Ciudadanos and its members.[1] In El Salvador and Bolivia the plural is a vulgar word for a woman's breasts.[16]

Timeline

  • c. 1300 – the Spanish Ibn Bassal, dated before 1300 in the CDH (in an early 15th-century copy).[11][12]
  • c. 1330 – first record of the tree name naranjo.[3]
  • late 14th century – the BDELC's first record.[3]
  • c. 1406 – Ruy González de Clavijo sees çidras & limas & naranjas on his embassy to Tamerlane.[11]
  • 1423 – Villena's Arte cisoria uses orange juice in cooking.[11][17]
  • c. 1495 – Nebrija glosses it with Latin malum citreum.[18]
  • 1513 – the first record in the Americas, in Puerto Rico.[19]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias records naranjada and naranjado.[13]
  • 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Arabic and Persian.[20]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An orange, the fruit of the naranjo: round, with a rough reddish-yellow peel and juicy, sweet-and-sour pulp in segments.[2][1]
  2. (historical) A cannonball of about the size of an orange.[2]
  3. (masculine) The orange colour; a dye or pigment of that colour.[2][1]
  4. (Spain, politics) A member or supporter of Ciudadanos.[1]

Adjective

  1. Orange in colour: un vestido naranja.[2][1]
  2. (Spain, politics) Of Ciudadanos.[1]

Word family

  • naranjo
  • naranjada
  • anaranjado
  • naranjero
  • naranjal
  • toronja
  • Portuguese laranja
  • French orange

Usage notes

As a colour adjective naranja has the plural naranja or naranjas.[1] The phrase media naranja means a person's perfect match, a spouse or partner, and in architecture a dome.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. naranja
  3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. naranja
  4. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. naranja
  5. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. naranja
  6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. naranja
  7. ^ Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter, p. s.v. laranja
  8. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2003
  9. ^ Dozy, Reinhart; Engelmann, W. H. (1869), Glossaire des mots espagnols et portugais dérivés de l'arabe, 2nd ed., Leyde: Brill, p. 342
  10. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 8, 315
  11. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
  12. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock
  13. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1158
  14. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. naranja
  15. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. naranja
  16. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. naranja
  17. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv
  18. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 385
  19. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies
  20. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 732

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Naranja.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/naranja. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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