Late Middle English: from Old French orenge (in the phrase pomme d'orenge), based on Arabic nāranj, from Persian nārang.

• The name of the orange, first recorded in English in medieval times, goes back through Arabic to Persian, although the native home of the fruit may have been southeast Asia. The Arabs brought what we now call the Seville orange, or bitter orange, to Sicily in the Middle Ages, and from Sicily it was introduced to the rest of Europe. In the 16th century the Portuguese brought the sweet orange from China, and gave us the fruit which we now know simply as the orange, at first distinguished as a China orange. The children's game of oranges and lemons is recorded from the early 19th century but is probably a lot older. The song lists the bells of a number of London churches, beginning with St Clement's, and the final line runs ‘Here comes a chopper to chop off your head.’ This has led to the theory that the song looks back to the days of public executions, when the condemned person was taken in procession to execution while the church bells were tolled. There may also be an association with the marriages of King Henry VIII, and the beheading of two of his wives. The Orangemen of Northern Ireland are members or supporters of the Orange Order, a Protestant political society in favour of continued union with Britain. Their name comes from the wearing of orange badges as a symbol of adherence to King William III, who defeated the Catholic James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. William was also known as William of Orange, a town in southern France which was the home of the ancestors of the Dutch royal house.