Impariamo i colori in italiano con i bambini

What does “arancione” mean in Italian?

In Italian the color orange is arancione, and it comes from the fruit: arancia means an orange you eat, and arancione is its color. English does the same thing — the fruit gave its name to the shade. So if you already know the fruit word, the color is one short step away. The fruit ends in -a; the color swaps that for -one. Both words are everyday, standard Italian, used all over the country.

In the clip a teacher goes through colors with a child, and when they reach orange the child says “Arancione. Arancione.” The fruit name arancia traces back through Arabic naranj (and Persian before that). Like English, Italian named the color after the fruit, and a few other Italian colors also come from objects: marrone (brown, from the chestnut) and viola (purple, from the violet flower). A few you can use right away: una giacca arancione (an orange jacket), il tramonto è arancione (the sunset is orange), un’arancia dolce (a sweet orange).