(tănˌjə-rēnˈ, tănˈjə-rēnˌ)
noun- A widely cultivated variety of mandarin orange having deep red-orange fruit with easily separated segments.
- A strong reddish orange to strong or vivid orange.
Related Forms:
Word History: The name
tangerine comes from Tangier, Morocco, the port from which the first tangerines were shipped to Europe in 1841. The adjective
tangerine, from
Tangier or
Tanger, was already an English word (first recorded in 1710), meaning “of or pertaining to Tangier.” This adjective had been formed with the suffix
-ine, as in
Florentine. The fruit was first called a
tangerine orange, later reduced simply to
tangerine. Confusion exists between the name
tangerine and the name
mandarin, and with good reason. The tangerine is a type of mandarin orange, so the oranges shipped from Tangier could also accurately have been called
mandarins. However, although the two names can be used interchangeably in a general sense, there is now a particular type of orange called
tangerine, which is different from another type now called
mandarin. The mandarin orange, which is native to China, is thought probably to have received its name because of its resemblance in color to the robes of a mandarin.
