That didn’t appear until the early 1500s. In fact, it was probably the wider availability of the fruit that inspired people to come up with a name for the color, in a similar vein to the color peach. read more
The citrus definitely got named first. The earliest recorded use of orange the fruit in English is from the 1300s and came to us from the Old French orenge, adapted from the Arabic nāranj, from the Persian nārang, from the Sanskrit nāranga ("orange tree"). read more
Unlike the chicken, we can follow the etymological trail, and know with certainty that the fruit came first -- by 300 years no less. The first instance of the word in Anglo manuscript, "pume orange," dates back to the 13th century (and it was adapted from old French "pomme d'orenge" ). read more