Does anyone know when the Europeans reached the far East exactly or when the first orangutan was seen in Europe It mightnt be a stretch to say that the colour orange was named after these magnificent men of the forest undoubtedly imported by Europeans for display a long time ago Orang means man in Malay I had the honour of having tea with some Orangs in the Singapore zoo many years ago They all had truly orange hair and so I would like to suggest that an experience with those creatures would make enough of an impression on Europeans to name a colour after Shouldnt we be looking for Malay words that rhyme with orang