Only the bitter orange (or Seville orange) was known in medieval times, brought by the Arabs to the Mediterranean in the eleventh century. The common sweet orange was imported from China by the Portuguese only in the sixteenth century.

The word is rare in Anglo-Norman, with its peculiar culinary use not found in English or Continental French.

The TLF lists an earlier Anglo-Norman citation, from c.1200, of pume orenge, attested in Alexander Neckam’s commentary to the Song of Solomon in BL, Royal 4.D.XI, 83r.