Pepper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, wonders why something valuable to someone is called the apple of their eye. The expression apple of one’s eye dates back to the ninth century. It comes from misunderstanding the pupil of the eye as a sphere and not an aperture. Similarly, the French word for pupil is prunelle, or little plum. The word pupil itself comes from Latin pupilla, or little doll, because if you look deeply into someone’s eyes, you’ll see a tiny reflection of yourself. For the same reason, the expression to look babies at each other referred to the way lovers look into each others’ eyes, close enough to see themselves. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “The Apple of Your Eye”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Pepper. I’m calling from Philadelphia.
Hi, Pepper. Welcome to the show.
So I was calling with a question about the phrase apple of my eye.
Oh, yes, please.
I’ve heard this phrase used not actually by people in person, actually, but I’ve heard it used like in movies and on cartoons.
And I know what it means. You know, it means you’re talking very affectionately about something, but I wanted to know where it came from because I couldn’t put anything together with the word apple.
So, yeah, I just wanted to know where that started.
Yeah, the puzzle is why would you think of a spherical object that’s inside your eye?
But what’s really interesting about this expression is that it is super old, Pepper. It is so old, old, old.
It goes back to, what, the 9th century?
Wow.
King Alfred used it way back then.
Yes, it refers to someone or something that’s very, very valuable. As valuable as your own eyes. That’s the idea. But apparently it derives from a misapprehension, a misunderstanding that the black pupil in your eye was a little thing like a little apple.
Like a ball, like a black BB or something.
Like a little black BB. You see it a lot in the King James Version of the Bible. Shakespeare used it. You know, you see that idea reflected in a way in French. The French word for the pupil of your eye is punel, which means little plum.
Oh. How about that? Wow. I had no idea it was so old.
That’s so cool because everyone knows what it means.
Yeah, but it’s not something that initially makes any sense, but now it does. And part of it was a kind of a translation choice that it was made in early translations of the Bible where it was very clear to the translators that the Latin word pupillam, P-U-P-I-L-L-A-M, could either be translated as the apple or as the pupil.
But then instead of taking the biological term, they decided to go with the botanical term.
-huh.
Well, the word pupil itself is very interesting because it comes from the Latin for, I think it’s pupilla, something like that, that means little doll.
Because if you look into somebody’s eyes, you see this little figure.
You.
Yeah, that’s actually yourself.
Oh.
Yeah, years ago people would say that lovers look babies at each other. And by that they meant not let’s make a baby, but they’re looking into the little baby of your eye, which is that little image of yourself reflected back.
That’s amazing.
And the French word for puppet maybe is related.
It’s poupé, right?
Sure, yeah.
Interesting.
So how about that?
Of course, the word pupil also means student.
Right.
But I don’t know if that has any relation.
It does.
It does.
A little one.
A little version of an adult.
Yeah.
There you go.
A little doll.
Oh, wow.
So it’s just like saying you’re as valuable to me as my own eyes.
That’s right.
Pepper, thank you so much.
Oh, well, thank you so much.
Thank you.
Yeah, thanks for calling.
All right, take care.
You guys, too.
Have a great day.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Email words@waywordradio.org.
