laranja

Forms

laranja f (plural laranjas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Arabic نارنج (nāranǧ, “bitter orange”), written Old Galician-Portuguese laranja in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][1] The Arabic word is from Persian نارنگ (nārang), from Sanskrit नारङ्ग (nāraṅga, “orange tree”).^[2][3][5] Dalgado notes that the tree was known before the Portuguese conquests in the East, and that its name came to Portugal through Arabic, the first source being Sanskrit.^[6] Wiktionary calls the Sanskrit word of uncertain origin, possibly Dravidian, and Aurélio says that both the name and the fruit may be of Indian origin.^[1][7]

The same Arabic word is Galician laranxa and Spanish naranja, with the Galician and Portuguese ⟨l⟩ where Spanish keeps ⟨n⟩.^[8][9] In Catalan, naronja means the citron, while the orange there is taronja, which, Corriente says, contaminated the Catalan form.^[2][8] Dalgado also compares French orange and Italian arancio.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is of 1377, in a list of fruit: Romãas e laranjas e limõões e çidras “pomegranates and oranges and lemons and citrons”.^[10][3]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso (1569) and Pereira (1697) translate the word with the Latin names of the citrus fruit, malum medicum and malum aureum.^[11][12] Folqman (1755) distinguishes the sweet laranja da china from the sour laranja azeda, and Morais (1813) adds the navel orange and the tangerine of Rio de Janeiro.^[13][14] The tree, laranjeira, is recorded from the 14th century, the grove, laranjal, from the 16th.^[4]

The name of the fruit became a name of its colour, as a masculine noun and an invariable adjective (almofadas laranja); the older adjective is alaranjado, recorded about 1541.^[3][4] In Brazilian slang a laranja is a front man whose name others use for fraud or to escape the tax office, and a naive person.^[3][7] In Portugal it was an informal name for a hand grenade, and in political slang the adjective refers to the Social Democratic Party.^[3][15]

Timeline

• 1377 – laranjas in a list of fruit.^[10][3]
• c. 1541 – first record of alaranjado.^[4]
• 1563 – Houaiss records the spelling naranja.^[3]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary has the word.^[11]
• 1576 – laraõjas in a private letter.^[16]
• 1755 – Folqman lists laranja da china and laranja azeda.^[13]
• 1873 – first record of laranjada.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. An orange, the fruit of the orange tree (laranjeira).^[3][17][1]
2. The orange tree itself, in the names of its varieties: laranja-lima, laranja-pera.^[3][18]
3. (masculine) The colour orange, between yellow and red.^[3][15][1]
4. (masculine and feminine, Brazil, slang) A front man, a person whose name is used by others in fraudulent deals.^[3][7][1]
5. (Brazil, informal) A naive or unimportant person.^[3][7]
6. (Portugal, informal) A hand grenade (granada).^[3]
7. A variety of Portuguese pear.^[17][15]

Adjective

1. Of the colour of an orange; alaranjado: uma camisola laranja.^[3][19][1]
2. (Portugal, politics, slang) Of the Social Democratic Party.^[15]

Word family

• alaranjado
• alaranjar
• laranjada
• laranjal
• laranjeira
• laranjinha
• laranja-lima
• laranja-pera
• laranja-da-terra

Related words

• Spanish naranja
• Galician laranxa

Usage notes

As a colour adjective laranja is invariable: camisas laranja.^[3][1] Estar a pão e laranja means to go hungry, often as a punishment, or to cut one's spending hard.^[17][19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. laranja
4. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. laranja
5. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. laranja
6. ^ a b Dalgado, Sebastião Rodolfo (1919–1921), Glossário luso-asiático, 2 vols., Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade, p. 1, 513
7. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. laranja
8. ^ a b Corriente, Federico (1999), Diccionario de arabismos y voces afines en iberorromance, Madrid: Gredos, p. 362
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. laranja
11. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. laranja
12. ^ Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. laranja
13. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. laranja
14. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 205
15. ^ a b c d Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. laranja
16. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. laranja
17. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. laranja
18. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. laranja
19. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 5585