Québécois (word) la langue française mentions only a territorial meaning for "Québécois". Newspaper editor Lysiane Gagnon has referred to an ethnic sense of the word "Québécois" in both English and French. French expressions employing "Québécois" often appear in both French and English. Québécois (word) Québécois (pronounced ; feminine: Québécoise (pronounced ), ' (fem.: '), or (fem.: ) is a word used primarily to refer to a native or inhabitant of the Canadian province of Quebec, the majority of whom speak French as a mother tongue. It can refer to French spoken in Quebec. It may also be used, with an upper- or
Orange (word) thought that Old French borrowed the Italian "melarancio" ("fruit of the orange tree", with "mela" "fruit") as "pume orenge" (with "pume" "fruit"). Although "pume orenge" is attested earlier than "melarancio" in available written sources, lexicographers believe that the Italian word is actually older. The word ultimately derives from a Dravidian language — possibly Tamil நாரம் "nāram" or Telugu నారింజ "nāriṃja" or Malayalam നാരങ്ങ‌ "nāraŋŋa" — via Sanskrit नारङ्ग "nāraṅgaḥ" "orange tree". From there the word entered Persian "nārang" and then Arabic "nāranj". The initial "n" was lost through rebracketing in Italian and French, though some varieties of Arabic lost the