Talk:오렌지

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Latest comment: 11 years ago by Atitarev in topic Etymology
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Etymology[edit]

The orange is a fruit originating in China, so why do the Koreans use the word "orangi" and not a Sino-Korean term? 71.66.97.228 01:42, 21 June 2012 (UTC)Reply

I don't know, but I suspect it has something to do with the range of orange cultivation in China: Oranges are only grown in southern China, so the fruit might not have made its way up north to Korea enough for the Koreans to have borrowed the name for it from the Chinese. Once modern technology made the fruit available, they would have borrowed the term from the people who brought the fruit to them. I should mention that the Chinese term isn't completely absent. If you look up the Chinese character , you'll find a Korean section. Chuck Entz (talk) 06:03, 21 June 2012 (UTC)Reply
It's "orenji", not "orangi". English words are in fashion in both South Korea and Japan, so there many synonymic English words in use, even if there are native or Sino-Korean or Sino-Japanese words. Also, English words are preferred when there is a similar sounding word. I mention Japanese because you'll find that patterns for borrowing are very similar and if an English word is assimilated into Japanese, it may also be in use in South Korea. 오렌지/オレンジ are not recent borrowings and are also in related words. --Anatoli (обсудить) 01:36, 4 July 2012 (UTC)Reply