color orange

[Alina Israeli]

Sep 11, 2010, в 9:08 PM, William Ryan написал(а):

> This rather surreal set of possible word combinations certainly  
> pushes up the potential word count for "oranzhevyi" (though the  
> absence of fruit in the list certainly reinforces my memory of the  
> 1960s),

Well, I lived in Leningrad in the 60's, all of them, every single year  
of the decade (not so for the 50's or 70's). Oranges were sporadic,  
but certainly they were there from time to time. How can remember it  
so vividly? I had allergy to oranges, I would break into hives.  
Fortunately, my food allergies got cured in 1968 and I have been  
drinking orange juice every day since I am in the US.

Tangerines — mandariny — were sine qua non for a New Year tree/party;  
they were either hanging on the tree or served at children's parties  
(oranges weren't). But I remember oranges served during dinner in the  
winter camp on lake Ladoga circa 1966 (end of December — early  
January). Again, I remember it not because it was so unusual, but  
because of the strange conversation that surrounded it.

>
> I can now partly answer my own question - chapter four of the  
> admirable work by N.B. Bakhalina, Istoriia tsvetooboznacheniia v  
> russkom iazyke, Moscow, 1975, is devoted entirely to words for the  
> colour orange shows that the word is indeed used in the colour sense  
> only from the later 19th century. Before that "oranzhevyi" existed  
> only in the botanical sense - "oranzhevoe derevo".

What was missing in this history is fleur d'orange as part of the  
wedding dress:

Волосы украшали венком с длинной белой фатой. Обычай носить свадебный  
венок из цветов стар, как мир, но в официальную моду был введен во  
Франции лишь в XIX веке. Венок назывался флердоранж, потому что делали  
его из цветов померанцевого дерева. (http://www.fleurdorange.com.ua/index.php?p=446 
)



Alina Israeli
Associate Professor of Russian
LFS, American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave.
Washington DC 20016
(202) 885-2387 	fax (202) 885-1076
aisrael at american.edu

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