Tamil words in English

[N. Ganesan]

Re: Tamil words in English
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In Tamil, naRu means smell. Like in naRu malar = flower with a good smell.
nARRam = smell.

Prior to 10th century or so, nARRam meant only good smell.
Compare the Srivaishnava Woman Saint Andal's song:
karppUram nARumO? kamalap pU nARumO?. Here it definitely
means good smell.

 nARRaGkAy or nARaGkaay means an unripened fruit with a unique smell.
Nowadays, it is called nArttaGkAy or nArattaGkAy or nAraGkAy
in spoken language.

Webster's dictionary derives Orange from a Dravidian origin
via Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, Old Provencal, French and finally,
middle English. See S. Kichenassamy's Indology posting
on 13 oct 1995.

I am sure:
nARRaGkAy -> nAraGkAy ... -> Orange

N. Ganesan

PS:
A. K. Ramanujan once told me Koel is from tamil kuyil.
He uses the word Koel in his translations from Tamil too.