Because the dry outer skin is a rich red colour

An orange is about the only thing correctly named

Because purple isn’t a colour

It’s the absence of colour your brain cannot interpret so it makes a purple.

in hungarian it’s purple onion, you just choose the wrong language :)

Because they are only purple on the inside. Do you think apples are white? Or bananas?

Jess and Rob on Words Unraveled talk about color word origins, and their discussion is illuminating about the cultural variance in perception of color. Now I am at peace with all the seemingly weird color names for things.

For a quicker tour, Vox talks about the order that languages fill in color words as cultures begin to refine their distinction.

We’re not white on the Inside, so why should a red onion have to be red all the way through

Yet purple finches clearly are red

Same reason they call the tree a “Redbud tree.”

Barely literate settlers were colonizing and writing home about the beautiful Puple Prule Purlple Lavendaar Red-Bud Trees.

In Spanish we actually call them “cebolla morada” that means purple onion :D

We call them purple in Spanish… English has brain damage as per usual.

I don’t know if this has anything to do with it, but it’s a cool read nonetheless.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a71442895/purple-is-fake-research/

I’ve found the color in a things name usually points to what color dye you can extract from it.

I AM AN ADULT!

Nobody tell them about red cabbage