ORANGE
Wild Word Friday!
My niece Amy and I had a little conversation a few weeks ago about the aggravation of trying to fit a word into a poem when that word has nothing that rhymes with it. Of course, the word ORANGE was the first one Amy mentioned.
It didn’t take me long after our conversation to decide that ORANGE was a good candidate for a Wild Word Friday. After all, who in the English-speaking world has not tried to come up with a rhyming word for ORANGE? Especially when we didn’t take our teacher’s word for it and were sure that we alone of all the world could find that illusive rhyme. Perhaps you discovered like I did that teachers aren’t at all impressed with Sporange, Morange or my favorite Xorange.
During its long history as a word, ORANGE hasn’t changed much in form or sound, despite its prickly stubbornness about rhyming. In Middle English and in Old French ORANGE was orenge. In the Prussian language ORANGE is auranja, in Spanish naranja, in Armenian naranj and in Persian narang. All of these words seem to be influenced by the Latin aurum, which means gold.
I must admit that – despite my frustration with the word ORANGE – when the trees grow autumn bright, ORANGE is just about my favorite word of all.
How do you feel about ORANGE – the color, the fruit or the rhyming problems?
Blessings!
Sue
I remember once rhyming orange with dorange in a poem I wrote for a friend many years ago, it was used in a way that sounded like a name one would call someone, “you dorange.” Worked for the poem which was silly anyway.
I love the colour orange. The leaves in Nova Scotia are beginning to change. Some of the colours are simply breathtaking.
LOVE THAT, Laura!! A great new word that solves all our rhyming problems – DORANGE, as in you DORANGE! Wonder if we can get that added to the next edition of Websters!