The colors of English

There’s a fruit that you cut in parts or squeeze（榨汁）to drink its juice. What is it? It’s an orange. The name of the fruit is also the name of the colour you use to paint carrots or flowers.

Many words     1     (come) into English from other languages since long ago. The word orange came into English from Arabic. Arabic farmers developed the orange, known there as the naranjl. Later, the word on into Spanish as la naratia. Finally, it came into English as orange. At that time, orange only referred to（指的是）fruit. Later, orange     2     (use) for the colour as well.

Some words keep their meanings when they come into another language. Others change     3     (they) meanings. Many languages have words that came from Indo-European, which was     4     early language. The word blue was from an Indo-European word that meant “yellow”. Later, the word came into Greek, where meant “white”. Then it came into Old English, where it meant “pale”. Blue started referring to the colour we know today when the word came into French. Today, you would     5     (probable) choose blue to paint the sky or blue berries, not the sun or snow.

The word for the colour green was originally（起初）    6     German. The German word was green meaning “to grow”. That’s     7     we got the name for the colour of plants. Today, green also describe actions that help our planet.

Red, which came from Greek, also kept the same meaning when it moved into English. You can see the word red in colour words which are shades（阴影）of red,     8     (include）ruby（深红）and rust red（铁锈红）. You may use the colour red     9     (draw) apples or cherries.

Words often change their spellings and meanings when they come into another language. You can be a word detective and find clues to a word’s history. Many     10     (dictionary) have notes about how a word came into English. These notes can amaze you and your friends.