Sunday, November 30, 2014

Why is 'orange' so called?

In Tamil, 'oranju' means six and five (totalling eleven). Indian oranges commonly have eleven segments aka carpels. Thus the fruit's name might have originated from the Tamil word. Some oranges like the Persian ones typically have ten carpels.

Strangely, though many etymological interpretations are usually provided, this straightforward origin is not found anywhere. Are we uncomfortable with Occam's razor?

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