Orange

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Orange name of a town (Arausio in the ancient province of Gallia Narbonensis) on the Rhône in France, which in 1530 passed to the house of Nassau and so to the ancestors of William III of England (‘William of O.’, i.e. O.-Nassau), after whom were named (late XVIII) the O. lodges, Orangemen, and O. boys of an ultra-Protestant party in Ireland formally constituted into a secret society in 1795. The coincidence of this name with that of the fruit made the wearing of orange-coloured badges a symbol of attachment to William III and of membership of the O. Society.

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Orange (France)

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