Portugal is mostly known, of course, as the name of the most southwestern country in Europe. But what if we told you that throughout the world, "portugal" can actually mean "orange"?

Oranges have quite a story. Originally from China and India, basically since mankind was born, its first designation was "naranga", from the Old Sanskrit language, meaning literally "orange tree". Later on, with the Arabs reaching Europe (the Iberian Peninsula, more specifically), the Old Occitan (Catalan derived from this language) translated the word to "auranja". When reaching France, it was then called "pomme d'orenge", in Old French. So, the term "orange" came after that, obviously.

As said before, oranges were introduced in Al-Andalus (the Iberian Peninsula) by the Moors, around the 10th century. Cultivated mostly in the south - in Algarve, Portugal, and Andalucía, Spain -, with new irrigation techniques (like the noria), it was then spread throughout the Old Continent. But only bitter orange was circulating in Europe.

So, the Portuguese, in their 16th century sea expansion, brought the sweet orange to Europe from China. Portuguese and Italian merchants would sell this fruit all over the continent, as it was quickly adopted as an edible food. Portuguese seamen would also use this kind of orange as a great cure against scurvy - a disease easily contracted during their trips through sea, due to the frequent lack of food and, consequently, of vitamin C. It would mainly show effect on the person's gums, infecting it, which could lead to blood loss and even death.

Portugal was then known as the main sweet orange trader throughout the world, naming it in a lot of countries and languages: in Romanian, oranges are called "portocálâ" and in Greek you can say they're "portokáli". Right next to these countries, the Turkish named them "portokal". Even in some Italian regions, like Napoli, they actually call oranges by the country's name: "Portogallo".

But it doesn't end in Europe. Like the Portuguese sea discoveries, it spread all over the globe. In Persian, a language spoken in Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan, oranges are "porteqal". While in Arab, present in countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Syria, they call it "bortuqal" or "burtuqálum".