Is Orange, Orange Because of the Fruit or the Color

Are oranges named orange because they’re orange or is orange called orange because oranges are orange?

As the old saying goes, "Inquiring minds wanna know!"

Here's some of the feedback I got from my friends:

• Jon C McGlothlin says, "Life's deep questions: why do we drive on parkways, and park on driveways?"
• Julie McClanahan Weinke thinks, "The color is named after the fruit. Before the fruit was introduced to the English speaking world, the color was referred to as yellow-red or red-yellow."
• According to Frederick Bolton, one of the organizers for the Gateway Dynamite Shoot, "The color names have no origin that is emphatically founded except that they know all people/cultures see and perceive the same colors in the light spectrum. How and why the names were chosen had been the subject of much heated debate. Most studies go back to Sanskrit 1200 AD, but I would think Chinese history would tell the best story as their written history goes back 7,000 years. Still doesn't answer the question that every Kindergarten asks." He says, "If you really want to twist your brain around try looking for the definition of electricity. Not what we think it is, what it really is. I dare ya."

My favorite answer comes from my buddy Michael Wells whose always thinking outside the box, and he disagrees with all of the above and says instead:

Neither, they are both named after the Orangutan, who used to eat so many oranges that he peed orange!!! Since there were so many coincidences around the whole incident, they just named the whole thing the Orangutan Orange Tea.... Orange you glad you asked???

To be honest Michael . . . no.

So what do you think? Are oranges named orange because they’re orange or is orange called orange because oranges are orange?