Yes indeed. Before we had “orange”, and also “purple” everything was just “red” which is why we have red onions and red cabbage that are anything but red and several species of bird are called red despite being clearly orange coloured.
For some reason, french has a specific term for orange/red hair that’s quite old. So we don’t have red haired people. I don’t know if other languages share this.
The source for this is old reddit threads, so hardly authoritative, but supposedly the color orange was actually named after the food item.
Yes indeed. Before we had “orange”, and also “purple” everything was just “red” which is why we have red onions and red cabbage that are anything but red and several species of bird are called red despite being clearly orange coloured.
And why orange haired people still have red hair.
Sometimes I learn something that makes me think, how the hell had I not figured that out sometime in the past half-century.
For some reason, french has a specific term for orange/red hair that’s quite old. So we don’t have red haired people. I don’t know if other languages share this.