#15: Appelsínugulur

Today's word can be used to describe many things that I really like-- pumpkins, tigers, autumn, and a surprisingly large portion of my wardrobe. It's appelsínugulur, and it's the word for my favorite color: orange.

In English, the word "orange" can refer both to the color and to the delicious citrus fruit, and many amateur linguists like to turn this into a "chicken and egg" situation. Which came first, the word for the fruit or the word for the the color? Well, it turns out that we know the undisputed answer to this: the word for the fruit is attested much earlier (also, the egg came before the chicken). It's believed that the English word ultimately came from a Dravidian language, but not before embarking on a long journey through Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, Italian, Provençal, and French. It wasn't until some 200 years later in 1542 that the word also came to refer to the color of the fruit; before that, the old English geoluhread ("yellow-red") was used instead.

The Icelandic word has an analogous history. Appelsínugulur the color was preceded by appelsína, the word for the orange fruit. In fact, appelsínugulur literally means "orange fruit yellow" in direct reference to the fruit word. As for appelsína, it means "Chinese apple," but not in Icelandic; that would be epli kínverskt. Rather, it was borrowed from Danish during a time when Iceland was under Denmark's rule and Icelandic linguistic purism had not yet begun to flourish. The original Danish word, appelsin, was likely itself borrowed from another Germanic language such as Dutch or Low German.

So, when in Iceland, use appelsína when you want some fruit but appelsínugulur when you need to describe the color of it. And, of course, don't confuse either of these with Appelsín, a popular brand of orange-flavored soft drink.

"Sólskin í hverjum sopa!"

WORD SUMMARY:

appelsínugulur, --, -t (adj): orange (color)

Posted in: Adjectives, Colors, Compound Words, Food