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Orange (colour): the story on HearLore | HearLore
Orange (colour)
The word orange did not exist in the English language until the year 1502, when it appeared in a description of clothing purchased for Margaret Tudor. Before that moment, the color we now call orange was simply known as yellow-red or saffron, and the fruit itself was unknown to the English-speaking world. The name traveled a vast journey from the Sanskrit word naranga, through Persian and Arabic, before arriving in Europe via Portuguese merchants in the late 15th century. This linguistic shift coincided with the arrival of the actual fruit, which had been brought from Asia to Europe. The earliest recorded use of the word as a color name in 1502 marked a turning point where the fruit and its color became so familiar that the adjective orange replaced the older, clunkier descriptions. The place name Orange, however, has a completely separate origin, deriving from a Roman-Celtic settlement founded in 36 or 35 BC named after the Celtic water god Arausio, though the town later became associated with the color due to its position on trade routes for oranges.
The House That Wore Orange
The House of Orange-Nassau rose to become one of the most influential royal families in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries, originating in 1163 in the tiny Principality of Orange in southern France. The family adopted the name and the color orange in the 1570s, linking it to Protestantism during the French Wars of Religion. William I of Orange organized the Eighty Years' War, a resistance against Spain that lasted eighty years and resulted in the Netherlands winning its independence. The House's most prominent member, William III of Orange, became King of England in 1689 following the Glorious Revolution, which saw the downfall of the Catholic James II. William III defended the Protestant minority of Ireland against the majority Roman Catholic population, leading to the Protestants of Ireland being known as Orangemen. His orange-white-and-blue rebel flag became the forerunner of the modern flag of the Netherlands, and the color became an important political symbol in Britain and Europe. The legacy of the House of Orange extends to the Orange Free State in South Africa, founded by Dutch settlers in the 19th century, and to New York City, whose flag features an orange stripe to remember the Dutch colonists who founded the city.
The Pigments That Painted History
In ancient times, artists used orange pigments derived from minerals like realgar in Egypt and orpiment, which was a favorite of alchemists searching for a way to make gold. Orpiment, though highly toxic and containing arsenic, was an important item of trade in the Roman Empire and was used as a medicine in ancient China. The discovery of the mineral crocoite by French scientist Louis Vauquelin in 1797 led to the invention of the synthetic pigment chrome orange in 1809. This was followed by other synthetic pigments such as cobalt red, cobalt yellow, and cobalt orange, which were made from cadmium sulphide plus cadmium selenide. The invention of the metal paint tube in 1841 allowed artists to paint outdoors and capture the colors of natural light. In the 18th century, orange was used to depict the robes of Pomona, the goddess of fruitful abundance, and the invention of the heated greenhouse, known as an orangerie, made oranges more common in northern Europe. The Pre-Raphaelites and history painters in Britain embraced orange, with the flowing red-orange hair of Elizabeth Siddal becoming a symbol of the movement, and Lord Leighton producing Flaming June, a painting of a sleeping young woman in a bright orange dress.
When did the word orange first appear in the English language?
The word orange first appeared in the English language in the year 1502. It was used in a description of clothing purchased for Margaret Tudor before the fruit was known to the English-speaking world.
Who founded the House of Orange-Nassau and when did it originate?
The House of Orange-Nassau originated in 1163 in the tiny Principality of Orange in southern France. William I of Orange later organized the Eighty Years' War and the family rose to become one of the most influential royal families in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries.
What is the wavelength range of orange light in nanometers?
Orange light has a wavelength between approximately 585 and 620 nanometers. This range creates a hue of 30 degrees in HSV color space and is distinct from mixtures of red and yellow light.
Which year did Louis Vauquelin discover the mineral crocoite?
French scientist Louis Vauquelin discovered the mineral crocoite in 1797. This discovery led to the invention of the synthetic pigment chrome orange in 1809.
When did the Orange Revolution take place in Ukraine?
The Orange Revolution took place in Ukraine during November and December 2004. This popular movement carried activist and reformer Viktor Yushchenko into the presidency.
No other painter used orange so often and dramatically as Vincent van Gogh, who had shared a house with Paul Gauguin in Arles for a time. For Van Gogh, orange and yellow were the pure sunlight of Provence, and he produced his own oranges with mixtures of yellow, ochre, and red. He placed them next to slashes of sienna red and bottle green, and below a sky of turbulent blue and violet, putting an orange moon and stars in a cobalt blue sky. He wrote to his brother Theo of searching for oppositions of blue with orange, of red with green, of yellow with violet, trying to make the colors intense and not a harmony of greys. The Impressionist movement also embraced orange, with Claude Monet painting Impression, Sunrise in 1872, a tiny orange sun and some orange light reflected on the clouds and water in the center of a hazy blue landscape. Auguste Renoir painted boats with stripes of chrome orange paint straight from the tube, and Paul Cézanne produced his own oranges with touches of yellow, red, and ochre against a blue background. Toulouse-Lautrec often used oranges in the skirts of dancers and gowns of Parisiennes in the cafes and clubs he portrayed, using it as the color of festivity and amusement.
The Safety That Saves Lives
The high visibility of orange made it a popular color for certain kinds of clothing and equipment, particularly during World War II when US Navy pilots in the Pacific began to wear orange inflatable life jackets that could be spotted by search and rescue planes. After the war, these jackets became common on both civilian and naval vessels of all sizes, and on aircraft flown over water. Orange is also widely worn by workers on highways and by cyclists to avoid being hit, and prisoners are sometimes dressed in orange clothing to make them easier to see during an escape. Lifeguards on the beaches of Los Angeles County wear orange swimsuits to make them stand out, and orange astronaut suits have the highest visibility in space or against blue sea. An aircraft's two types of black box, or flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, are actually bright orange so they can be found more easily. The Golden Gate Bridge at the entrance of San Francisco Bay is painted international orange to make it more visible in the fog, and next to red, it is the color most popular for extroverts and as a symbol of activity.
The Sacred Robes of Asia
In Hinduism and Buddhism, a wide variety of colors, ranging from a slightly orange yellow to a deep orange red, all simply called saffron, are closely associated with the religions and are commonly worn by monks and holy men across Asia. In Buddhism, orange was the color of illumination, the highest state of perfection, and the saffron colors of robes to be worn by monks were defined by the Buddhist texts. The robe and its color is a sign of renunciation of the outside world and commitment to the order, with the candidate monk taking his vows and putting on the robes before going out to the world to spend his mornings begging and his afternoons in contemplation and study. The color of robes varies somewhat among the different schools of Buddhism, with monks of the strict Vajrayana or Tantric Buddhism, practiced in Tibet, wearing the most colorful robes of saffron and red, while monks of Mahayana Buddhism, practiced mainly in Japan, China, and Korea, wear lighter yellow or saffron, often with white or black. Monks of Theravada Buddhism, practiced in Southeast Asia, usually wear ochre or saffron color, and monks of the forest tradition in Thailand and other parts of Southeast Asia wear robes of a brownish ochre, dyed from the wood of the jackfruit tree.
The Revolution of Orange
In the 20th and 21st centuries, the color orange had highly varied associations, both positive and negative, and became the color of political and social movements. In Ukraine in November and December 2004, it became the color of the Orange Revolution, a popular movement which carried activist and reformer Viktor Yushchenko into the presidency. Orange was the rallying color of the Orange Institution, a pro-British Protestant association based in Northern Ireland, and was used as a rallying color by Israelis who opposed Israel's unilateral disengagement plan in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in 2005. Orange ribbons are used to promote awareness and prevention of self-injury, and the color is used in the ribbon of the Order of St. George, a patriotic symbol in Russia. The New Democratic Party's unexpected sweep of seats in Quebec and its consequent rise to official opposition in the 2011 federal election became known as the Orange Wave or Orange Crush, and the color is used by the Orange Democratic Movement in Kenya and the Orange Movement in Italy.
The Science of Seeing Orange
In optics, orange is the color seen by the eye when looking at light with a wavelength between approximately 585 and 620 nanometers, and it has a hue of 30 degrees in HSV color space. Isaac Newton's Opticks distinguished between pure orange light and mixtures of red and yellow light by noting that mixtures could be separated using a prism. In the traditional color wheel used by painters, orange is the range of colors between red and yellow, and painters can obtain orange simply by mixing red and yellow in various proportions, though these colors are never as vivid as a pure orange pigment. In the RGB color model, orange is generated by combining high intensity red light with a lower intensity green light, with the blue light turned off entirely. The actual complement of orange is azure, a color that is one quarter of the way between blue and green on the color spectrum, and orange pigments are largely in the ochre or cadmium families, absorbing mostly greenish-blue light. The color of carrots, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, oranges, and many other fruits and vegetables comes from carotenes, a type of photosynthetic pigment that converts the light energy that the plants absorb from the sun into chemical energy for the plants' growth.