Apple

Forms: 1 æppel, æpl, 2–7 appel, 2–4 eppel(e, epple, 3–4 appell, 3–5 appil(e, 4–5 -yl(le, -ulle, 4–6 -ul, 5 apille, -elle, 6 -ill, aple, 4– apple. Pl. 3– apples; 1 æp(p)la (the fruit), æpplas of the eye, 3–4 applen. [common Teut.: with OE. æppel cf. OFris. appel, OHG. aphul, aphal, apfal, mod.G. apfel, all masc.; ON. ępli (for apli), OSw. æpli, (Goth. unkn. ? apuls, pl. apuleis, masc., or apli, pl. aplja, neut.); cf. Lith. óbůlas, -is, Samogitian abolis, Lettish ahbols, OSl. jabl’ko, Russ. jablo-ko, Pol. jalt-ko; also Irish abhal, ubhal, Welsh afal. The relation of these to the Teutonic, and the origin of the word are unknown (see Grimm I. 532–3); nor does it seem certain whether the general or special meaning is the earlier.]

  1.  The round firm fleshy fruit of a Rosaceous tree (Pyrus Malus) found wild, as the Crab-apple, in Europe and the Caucasus, and cultivated in innumerable varieties all over the two Temperate Zones.

c. 885.  K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past., xv. 94. Ða readan apla [v.r. appla, L. poma granata] onʓemang ðæm bellum.

c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 25. He … beð al swa is an eppel iheowed.

1297.  R. Glouc., 283. Upe þe hexte bowe tueye applen he sey.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VI. v. (1495), 192. Chyldren loue an apple more than golde.

c. 1449.  Pecock, Repr., I. iv. 160. This tree … bringith forth soure Applis.

1533.  Elyot, Cast. Helth, II. vii. 21. Rough tasted appules are holsome where the stomake is weake.

1596.  Shaks., Merch. V., I. iii. 102. A goodly apple rotten at the heart.

1712.  Steele, Spect., No. 509, ¶ 2. Venders of … apples, plumbs.

1813.  Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem., 255. Most of our best apples are supposed to have been introduced into Britain by a fruiterer of Henry the Eighth.

  b.  Common in proverbial expressions.

1340.  Ayenb., 205. A roted eppel amang þe holen, makeþ rotie þe yzounde.

1532.  More, Confut. Tindale, Wks. 689/1. Let him take mine yie for an apple, if [etc.].

1579.  Fulke, Heskins’s Parl., 241. Your argument is as like, as an apple is like an oyster.

1596.  Shaks., Tam. Shr., I. i. 139. Faith (as you say) there’s small choise in rotten apples.

1623.  Sanderson, Serm., Wks. 1681, I. 95. Of a wavering and fickle mind; as we say of children; won with an apple, and lost with a nut.

  c.  Short for APPLE-TREE.

1626.  Bacon, Sylva, § 584 (T.). Oakes, Beeches,… &c. last longer than Apples, [etc.].

  2.  Any fruit, or similar vegetable production; especially such as in some respect resemble the Apple, but, from the earliest period, used with the greatest latitude.

a. 1000.  Sax. Leechd., I. 64. Genim brembel-æppel.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Numb. xi. 5. Cucumeres þat sind eorþæppla.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. cviii. (1495), 670. Al manere apples that ben closyd in an harde skynne, rynde, other shale, ben callyd Nuces.

1555.  R. Eden, Decades N. Worlde, v. Venemous apples wherwith they poyson theyr arrowes.

1607.  Topsell, Four-footed Beasts (1673), 516. The fruit or Apples of Palm-trees.

1765.  Tucker, Lt. Nat., 377. The fly injects her juices into the oak-leaf, to raise an apple for hatching her young.

1861.  Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, II. II. v. 153. Bedeguars. [note, Commonly called soft apples]—This name is given to galls which are covered with numerous close-set fibres or hairs.

  b.  Bot. Any fruit of the structure of the Apple; ‘an inferior fleshy many-celled fruit’; a pome.

1729.  J. Martyn, Lect. Bot., 20, in Chambers, Cycl. Supp.

  3.  Hence forming part of the name of a large number of fruits; as Apple Punic, obs. name of the pomegranate; Apple of Sodom, or Dead Sea Fruit, described by Josephus as of fair appearance externally, but dissolving, when grasped, into smoke and ashes; a ‘traveller’s tale’ supposed by some to refer to the fruit of Solanum Sodomeum (allied to the Tomato), by others to the Calotropis procera; fig. Any hollow disappointing specious thing.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 1129. Quane here apples ripe ben, fier-isles man mai ðor-inne sen.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIII. xiii. Ther [by the dead sea] groweþ most feyre applis … and when þou takest, he fadeþ and falleþ in to ashes and smokeþ as þouȝe he were brennynge.

1601.  Holland, Pliny (1634), I. 398. Hereof cometh the colour of Puniceus (i. a light red, or a bay) taking the name of the apple Punicke, or Pomegranat.

1634.  Rainbow, Labour (1635), 6. Those apples of Sodom which dye betwixt the hand and the mouth.

1703.  Maundrell, Journ. Jerus. (1721), 85. As for the Apples of Sodom … I neither saw nor heard of any.

1869.  Eng. Mech., 24 Dec., 354/1. Mecca galls, Dead Sea apples, Sodom apples, or mad apples … are occasionally imported from Bussarah.

  Apple of Adam = ADAM’S APPLE; Apple of Love = LOVE APPLE.

  ¶  See also ALLIGATOR A., BALSAM A., CHERRY A., CUSTARD A., DEVIL’S A., EGG A., ELEPHANT A., JEW’S A., KANGAROO A., MAD A., MANDRAKE A., MAY A., MONKEY A., OAK A., OTAHEITE A., PERSIAN A., PINE A., PRAIRIE A., ROSE A., STAR A., THORN A.

  4.  ‘The fruit of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste brought death into the world, and all our woe’ (Milton).

a. 1000.  Cædmon, Gen., 637 (Grein). Æppel unsǽlʓa, deáþbeámes ofet.

c. 1230.  Ancr. R., 52. Eue biheold o þen uorbodene eppele.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 755. Adam brake goddis comandement of the appil.

a. 1450.  Knt. de la Tour (1868), 59. The delite of the apille slow Eve.

1667.  Milton, P. L., X. 487. Him by fraud I have seduc’d From his Creator … with an Apple.

1829.  Southey, All for Love, II. The Apple had done but little for me, If Eve had not done the rest.

  5.  Apple of discord: the golden apple inscribed ‘For the fairest,’ fabled to have been thrown by Eris, the personification of discord, into the assembly of the gods, and contended for by Juno, Minerva and Venus; whence, any subject of disagreement and dissension.

[c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, VI. 2434. Hit semit me … Þat Venus the vertuus was verely þe fairest, And I duli … demyt hir the appull.]

a. 1649.  Drumm. of Hawth., Irene, Wks. 1711, 173. Who throw the apple of dissension amongst your subjects.

1680.  Established Test, 10. The Apple of Contention between the Prince and the People.

1867.  Freeman, Norm. Conq., I. iv. 195. This great and wealthy church constantly formed an apple of discord.

  6.  Anything resembling an apple in form or color; any smooth globular body of metal, glass, etc. Golden Apple: the Orb in the British Regalia.

a. 1000.  Sal. & Sat., 28. Irenum aplum.

1366.  Maundev., i. 8. He was wont to holden a round Appelle of Gold in his Hond.

c. 1430.  Lydg., Bochas (1554), 220 b. Ye mot forsake of gold your apple round, Scepter and swerde.

1559.  Morwyng, Evonym., 207. To make the apple of the chieck ruddy.

1601.  Holland, Pliny (1634), II. 598. A round bal or hollow apple of glasse.

1881.  Art Interchange (N. Y.), 27 Oct., 93/1. They could be of double-faced Canton flannel, finished with fringe and floss apples.

  7.  Apple of the eye: the pupil or circular aperture in the center of the eye through which the dark retina is seen; so called, because it was supposed to be a globular solid body. Sometimes extended to the Iris and pupil; or to the Eyeball; but apparently only by misunderstanding.

c. 885.  K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past., xi. 68. On ðæs siweniʓean eaʓum beoð ða æplas [v.r. æpplas] hale … Sio scearpnes bið ʓewierd ðæs æples [v.r. æpples].

a. 1300.  W. de Biblesworth, in Wright, Voc., 145. La prunele, the appel of the eye.

1483.  Cath. Angl., Appylle of ee, pupilla.

1586.  T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., 145. We see our owne eies shine within the apples of our neighbours eies.

1600.  Chapman, Iliad, XIV. 409. The dart did undergore His eye-lid, by his eye’s dear roots, & out the apple fell.

1601.  Holland, Pliny, XI. 37. None have their eyes all of one color, for the bal or apple in the midst is ordinarily of another color than the white about.

1753.  Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., He cut asunder the Apple of the eye in several animals.

  b.  Used as a symbol of that which is cherished with the greatest regard.

c. 885.  K. Ælfred, Boeth., xxxix. § 10. Hí scilde swa ʓeornlíce swá swá man déþ ðone æpl on his eáʓan.

a. 1300.  E. E. Psalter xvi. 8. Als appel of eghe yheme þou me.

1535.  Coverdale, Zech. ii. 8. Who so toucheth you, shal touche the aple of his owne eye.

1816.  Scott, Old Mort., xx. Poor Richard was to me as an eldest son, the apple of my eye.

  B.  Comb. and Attrib. I. General relations.

  1.  obj. with active pple., or objective gen. with n. of agent or action, as apple-bite, -buyer, -gathering, -paring, -quarterer, -seller, -stealing.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 795. Or þat ilk appel bitt þair suns tethe ar eggeid yitt.

c. 1500.  Cock Lorells Bote, 5. Andrewe of habyngedon apell-byer.

1870.  Morris, Earthly Par., II. III. 161. As in the apple-gathering tide.

1879.  D. J. Hill, Bryant, 39. ‘Huskings’ and ‘apple-parings’ had not gone out of fashion.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., Appullseller, Pomilius.

1865.  Athenæum, 28 Jan., 120/2. The well-known ‘apple-stealing’ capital in the south transept of Wells Cathedral, is an admirable example of the mundane jocularity so remarkable in our countrymen of old.

  2.  similative, as apple-green, -smelling, apple-fallow, -gray, passing into synthetic derivatives, as apple-cheeked, -faced, -leaved, -scented, -shaped.

1848.  Dickens, Dombey (C. D. ed.), 9. A plump, rosy-checked … apple-faced young woman.

1812.  Sir H. Davy, Chem. Philos., 426. Oxides of uranium give bright colours to glass … brown, apple green, or emerald green.

1880.  Browning, Pan & Luna, 42. That apple-shaped Head which its hair binds close into a ball.

1809.  Pearson, Phil. Trans., XCIX. 331. In subsequent processes I failed in producing the same apple-smelling liquid.

  3.  attrib. a. simply, as apple-bloom, -blossom, -core, -flower, -graft, -harvest, -hoard, -juice, -legend; b. of purpose or use, as apple-cart, -loft, -orchard, -room, -stall; c. of material (= made of or with apples), as apple-dumpling, -fritters, -ice, -jelly, -pap, -pasty, -pudding, -sauce, -tart, -toddy.

1824.  Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. II. (1863), 244. Her *apple-blossom complexion.

1721.  Amherst, Terræ Fil., 293. A regimen of bread and water; or, what is little better, of small beer and *apple-dumplings.

1596.  Chapman, Iliad, III. 509. Fragrant *appleflowers.

c. 1460.  Russell, Bk. Nurt., 502. *Appulle fruture is good hoot, but þe cold ye not towche.

1668.  Boyle, Un-succeeding Exp., ii. in Ess. & Tracts (1669), 80 (J.). Three and twenty sorts of *Apple-Grafts flourishing upon the same old Plant, and most of them adorn’d with Fruit.

1861.  Gen. P. Thompson, Audi Alt., III. clxxviii. 214. Apples in *apple-harvest, and potatoes in potato time.

a. 1732.  Gay, Wks., 1745. I. 107. Now the squeez’d press foams with our *apple hoards.

1879.  R. Edwards, Russ. at Home, I. 197. There is the fruit-market, especially pleasing to foreigners from its delicious water-melons in the autumn, and its admirable frozen apples, like lumps of *apple-ice, in the winter.

1727.  Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Apple, Make an *Apple-Jelly … by extracting the Juice of the Rind and Cores.

1766.  Cavendish in Phil. Trans., LVI. 177. The air, discharged from *apple-juice by fermentation.

1872.  Black, Adv. Phaeton, xxviii. 382. The *apple legend of Tell.

1740.  Mrs. Delany, Autobiog. (1861), II. 120. Go see what’s doing in the cheese-chamber and the *apple-loft.

1807.  Vancouver, Agric. Devon (1813), 236. Very good *apple-orchards.

a. 1625.  Fletcher, M. Thomas, III. i. Which will down easily without *applepap.

1880.  Mrs. Park, Adam & Eve, 281. A couple of *apple pasties.

1807.  Home, in Phil. Trans., XCVII. 143. A child three years old, who being left alone at dinner, ate so large a quantity of *apple-pudding that it died.

1824.  Miss Mitford, Village (1863), II. 321. Names quite as inseparable as goose and *apple-sauce.

1596.  Shaks., Tam. Shr., IV. iii. 89. A sleeue … caru’d like an *apple Tart.

1809.  W. Irving, Knickerb. (1849), 239. Great roysters, much given to … *apple-toddy.

  II.  Special combinations.

  Apple-aphis, the insect (Lachnus lanigerus) which produces apple-blight, a cottony substance found on apple-trees; apple-berry, an Australian shrub and its fruit, of genus Billardiera; apple-brandy, a spirit distilled from cider; apple-butter (see quot.); apple-cheese, compressed apple-pomice; apple-corer, an instrument for cutting out the core of apples; apple-crook, a crook for gathering apples from the trees, also fig.; apple-drone, -drane, dial. a wasp; apple-eating a., used fig. for ‘easily tempted’; † apple-fallow a., of the yellowish-red color of apples, bay; apple-fly (see quot.); † apple-garth, an apple-garden or orchard; † apple-gray a. (ON. apal-grár), having the streaky color of an apple; apple-jack, American name for apple-brandy, in east of England for an apple-turnover; † apple-monger, a dealer in apples, fruiterer; apple-moss, a genus of moss with apple-shaped capsules; apple-moth, Tortrix pomana; apple-pear, probably the tankard-pear; apple-plum, one grafted on an apple stock; apple-pomice, the residue of apple-pulp after expressing the juice; Apple’s queen, Pomona; apple-scoop, an instrument made of bone or ivory used in eating apples; apple-shell, -snail, a family of Gasteropods, so named from their shape; † apple-water, cider; apple-wife, -woman, a female who keeps a stall for sale of apples; apple-worm, the maggot bred in apples; apple-wort, any plant of the sub-order Pomaceæ; † apple-yard (= apple garth).

  Also APPLE-JOHN, -MOSE, -PIE, -SQUIRE, -TREE, q.v.

1815.  Kirby & Spence, Entomol. (1843), I. 23. The *apple aphis … has done such extensive injury to our orchards.

1809.  W. Irving, Knickerb. (1861), 123. Flushed with victory and *apple-brandy.

1860.  Bartlett, Dict. Amer., *Apple Butter, A sauce made of apples stewed down in cider.

1708.  J. Philips, Cyder, II. 110.

1796.  Mrs. Glasse, Cookery, v. 71. Some carrot … cut round with an *apple-corer.

1382.  Wyclif, Pref. Epist., vii. 70. The *appel croke drawinge tourmentis to synful men.

1620.  Melton, Astrol., 53. Foolish, credulous, and *Appleeating women will believe them.

a. 1000.  Beowulf, 4336. Feower mearas … *æppelfealuwe.

1753.  Chambers, Cycl. Supp., *Apple Fly … a small green fly found sometimes within an Apple.

1483.  Cath. Angl., *Appelle garth, pometum.

1640.  King & North. Maid, 54, in Hazl., E. P. P., IV. 295. As though his eyes were *apple gray.

1865.  N. Y. Tribune, in Sheffield & Rotherham Independent, 22 April, 12/5. We … were soon favoured with the genuine Virginia stimulant known as *apple-jack, or apple-whisky.

1552.  Huloet, *Applemonger, Pomilius.

1864.  Intell. Observ., V. 264. The straight-leaved *apple-moss, grows on alpine ans sub-albine rocks.

1601.  Holland, Pliny (1634), I. 437. They began to graffe plums vpon apple-tree stocks, and those brought forth plums named *Apple-plums.

1664.  Evelyn, Pomona, Advt. 95. Water, wherein a good Quantity of *Apple-pomice hath been boil’d.

a. 1649.  Drumm. of Hawth., Wks., 1711, 6/2. Fair looketh Ceres with her yellow hair; And *apple’s-queen, when rose-cheek’d she doth smile.

1870.  Nicholson, Zool. (1880), 408. Ampullaria canaliculata. one of the *Apple shells.

1606.  Choice, Chance, etc. (1881), 11. *Apple water, otherwise called Sider.

1599.  Nashe, Lent. Stuff (1871), 72. Pomona, the first *apple-wife.

1840.  Gen. P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), V. 330. If members of parliament had the spirit of *apple-women.

1869.  Eng. Mech., 23 July, 393/2. The apple-worm moth.

1847.  Lindley, Veg. K. (ed. 2), 559. *Appleworts are closely allied to Roseworts.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., *Appullyerde, Pomerium.