Re: "Orange"

From: Douglas G. Kilday (fufluns_at_chorus.net)
Date: 09/06/04 

Date: Mon, 6 Sep 2004 23:51:04 -0000

"Wiktor S." <wswiktor@poczta.fmv> wrote ...
> >> The history of the word orange keeps step with this journey
> >> only part of the way. The word is possibly ultimately from Dravidian,
> >> a family of languages spoken in southern India and northern Sri
> >> Lanka. The Dravidian word or words were adopted into the
> >> Indo-European language Sanskrit with the form nraga. As the fruit
> >> passed westward,
> >
> > na:raNga
> >
> >> so did the word, as evidenced by Persian nrang and Arabic nranj.
> >> Arabs
> >
> > na:rang ... na:ranj
>
> Where the "pom-" word came from, then?

The Polish word cited appears to be borrowed from a collocation in some
Romance language of the words for 'fruit' and 'orange', the latter either a
noun in apposition or an adjective. In Italian one could say "pomo arancio"
'orange fruit', 'orange apple' but I don't know whether an Italian
expression was the specific source of the Polish word.

The Romance fruit-word itself comes from Latin <po:mum> 'fruit'. Umbrian
<Puemune> and Sabine or Vestinian <Poimunien> are forms of a divine name
which is the masculine counterpart of Latin <Po:mo:na>, goddess of fruit and
fruit-trees. The Italic root is evidently *powemo-, of non-Indo-European
origin. I don't know of any related words outside Italic.