Orange
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Root
nhara
a wild tree fruit, hard and round; by extension a knob or ball
Orange descends from Shona nhara, the hard round tree fruit
- Confidence
- 38/100
- Root language
- Shona
- Descent begins
- orangeEnglish
The consensus position
Mainstream comparative linguistics derives English orange from Old French orenge, from Italian narancia, from Arabic naranj, from Persian narang, from Sanskrit naranga, which is itself an unexplained loan into Indo-Aryan, possibly from a Dravidian base meaning fragrance. No Bantu language is involved at any stage; Shona oranji is a modern loan from English.
The working behind this.
The full descent — 8 links from the attested form down to the root — the segment-by-segment correspondences, the phonological breakdown and the case for the derivation are behind an account.
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