a. and sb. Also 8 -een, 9 -ene. [f. Tanger, Tangier + -INE1.] A. adj. Of or pertaining to, or native of Tangier, a seaport in Morocco, on the Strait of Gibraltar. Tangerine orange, a small flattened deep-colored variety of orange from Tangier, Citrus nobilis var. Tangeriana.
1612. Shelton, Don Quix., IV. xiii. He knew how to facilitate that inconuenience, by inducing a Tangerine Moore to become his partner of the Barke.
1710. Addison, Tatler, No. 250, ¶ 3. An old Tangereen Captain with a Wooden Leg.
1820. Luccock, Brazil, 1808–18, xiv. 459–60. A white Tangerine Orange attracted attention both by its singular colour and excellent flavour.
1841. Tillery, in Gard. Chron., 781. The Tangerine Orange.—I beg to draw attention to the cultivation of this as a fruit for the dessert.
1882. Garden, 18 Feb., 122/2. Two dishes of Tangerine Oranges.
B. sb. 1. A native of Tangier.
1860. All Year Round, No. 71. 491. Winterfield was sold to a Tangarene.
2. A Tangerine orange: see A.
1842. Gard. Chron., 6. The Tangerine I suspect to be only a variety of it [the Mandarin Orange].
1891. Daily News, 26 Dec., 5/4. There is an unusually good supply of tangerines.
1908. R. W. Chambers, Firing Line, vi. Please get me a few tangerines—those blood-tangerines up there.
b. A deep orange color; also attrib.
1899. Daily News, 16 Sept., 7/3. Ruddy pink and tender amethyst, tangerine, orange, mist-grey [etc.]. Ibid. (1904), 6 Oct., 8/4. Taking as the colour key-note, the fashionable tangerine shade.
1917. Maud D. Haviland, in Brit. Birds, XI. 1 June, 10. It was hard to believe that the tangerine tint of their [Dotterels’] breasts, which appears in the first plumage and persists through life, could be so inconspicuous on the grey tundra.
