• Question: If we call oranges, oranges then why don't we call bananas yellows?

    Asked by rhodesa09 to Adam, Leila on 23 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Adam Stevens

      Adam Stevens answered on 23 Mar 2012:

      They should definitely be called yellows. That’s a much better name.

      It would make naming apples really hard though! Oh, and what would you call lemons!?

    • Photo: Leila Battison

      Leila Battison answered on 23 Mar 2012:

      Which came first, the fruit or the colour? Actually, it was the fruit – before oranges were discovered and named, the colour orange was called a range of things like ‘fawn’ or ‘buff’ or ‘yellow-red’.

      So really, the colour yellow should be called ‘banana’!

      The meaning of the word orange is actually ‘fragrant’

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