La naranja!

That's the French for orange? I should Babelfish this sort of thing.

Naranja is Spanish.

Without Googling, I'd guess that at the time of the Norman invasion (when English aquired most of its French), the French was "n'orange" as well.

edit: And Wikipedia tells me it actually comes from Sanskrit nāraṅgaḥ, which means it probably traces all the way back to Proto Indo-European. Way cool!

[link]

That's the French for orange?

Spanish. But it would explain why it started out as norange. Romance languages!

And Wikipedia tells me it actually comes from Sanskrit nāraṅgaḥ, which means it probably traces all the way back to Proto Indo-European. Way cool!

Ah hah! So the French changed it first? Or the English changed it, and the French tagged along. Language is fun.

ION: The world's most patient cat.

[link]

ION: The world's most patient cat.

I'm always stunned when cats don't beat the hell out of babies. I mean -- they can't run, they can't retaliate, yet very often, cats don't do anything to them.

I think the cats just know that this crawling, drooling thing is sort of proto-human, and it wouldn't be fair to shred it. Yet. Plus, if the cat shreds the baby, the cat gets no gooshyfood, and THAT is not on.

if the cat shreds the baby, the cat gets no gooshyfood, and THAT is not on.

There's only so much gooshyfood you can get out of a baby, and the big ones always make such a fuss.

Plus, if the cat shreds the baby, the cat gets no gooshyfood, and THAT is not on.

Well, except for fresh baby.

Per this site, the n was dropped in Old French before it was introduced to English:

oops forgot the link [link]

c.1300, from O.Fr. orenge (12c.), from M.L. pomum de orenge, from It. arancia, originally narancia (Venetian naranza), alt. of Arabic naranj, from Pers. narang, from Skt. naranga-s "orange tree," of uncertain origin. Loss of initial n- probably due to confusion with definite article (e.g. une narange, una narancia), but perhaps infl. by Fr. or "gold." The tree's original range probably was northern India. The Persian orange, grown widely in southern Europe after its introduction in Italy 11c., was bitter; sweet oranges were brought to Europe 15c. from India by Portuguese traders and quickly displaced the bitter variety, but only Mod.Gk. still seems to distinguish the bitter (nerantzi) from the sweet (portokali "Portuguese") orange. Portuguese, Spanish, Arab, and Dutch sailors planted citrus trees along trade routes to prevent scurvy. On his second voyage in 1493, Christopher Columbus brought the seeds of oranges, lemons and citrons to Haiti and the Caribbean. Introduced in Florida (along with lemons) in 1513 by Sp. explorer Juan Ponce de Leon. Introduced to Hawaii 1792. Not used as the name of a color until 1542.

And I was wrong earlier about it being a PIE word - the word and the fruit both originated in India.

Speaking of links, I just got sent this, which is very happy-making. [link]

There's no winning so I guess I should just pretend to be clueless.

More and more this is my solution of choice.