What’s the origin of the idiom "the apple of my eye?"

- Robby

Found this:

The "apple" is the pupil of one’s eye.

APPLE OF HIS EYE A cherished person or object. In old English the eye’s pupil was known as the apple because it was thought to be spherical and solid. Since the pupil is a crucial and indispensable portion of the eye, it serves as a symbol of something cherished. An example in the Coverdale Bible of 1535 (Zechariah II:8 ) is: "Who so toucheth you, shal touche the aple of his owne eye." The expression also appears in Deuteronomy XXXII, 10 as part of a song spoken by Moses: "He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the aple of his eye." From The Dictionary of Cliches by James Rogers (Ballantine Books, New York, 1985).

A second reference says: That which one holds dearest, as in "You’re the apple of my eye." The phrase is from the Bible (Deut. 32:10), which says the Lord kept Israel ‘as the apple of his eye.’ Pupillam, or pupil, is actually the Latin for the ‘apple’ of the phrase, but English translation of the Bible used ‘apple’ because this was the early word for the pupil of the eye, which was thought to be a solid apple-shaped body. Because it is so essential to sight, the eye’s apple, or pupil, is to be cherished and protected and the apple of one’s eye came to mean anything extremely precious. The literal translation of the Hebrew phrase, incidentally, is "You are as the little man in the eye" (one’s own reflection in the pupil of another’s eye). Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins by Robert Hendrickson (Facts on File, New York, 1997).

From here: http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/bulletin_board/6/messages/927.html

In German, Augapfel ("eye apple") is another word for "eyeball". But it also has the figurative meaning as in English.

Ilka

[quote author=stickler link=board=idiom;num=1062085111;start=0#1 date=08/28/03 at 12:34:51][center]...[/center]The literal translation of the Hebrew phrase, incidentally, is "You are as the little man in the eye" (one’s own reflection in the pupil of another’s eye).[center]...[/center]

Perhaps we could entice Agoraphile to comment on this matter ?...

Henri

Interesting to me!

pupil (1) - "student," 14c., originally "orphan child, ward," from L. pupillus (fem. pupilla) "orphan, ward, minor," dim. of pupus "boy" (fem. pupa "girl"), probably related to puer "child," probably from PIE *pup-, from base *pu- "to swell, inflate." Meaning "disciple, student" first recorded 1563.

pupil (2) - "center of the eye," 14c., from L. pupilla, originally "little doll," dim. of pupa "girl, doll" (see pupil (1)), so called from the tiny image one sees of himself reflected in the eye of another. Gk. also used the same word, kore (lit. "girl"), to mean both "doll" and "pupil of the eye;" and cf. obsolete baby "small image of oneself in another’s pupil" (1593), source of 17c. colloquial expression to look babies "stare lovingly into another’s eyes."

-Tim

[quote author=Tim Ward link=board=idiom;num=1062085111;start=0#4 date=09/29/03 at 16:02:46]Interesting to me!

pupil (1) - "student," 14c., [...]

Auch für mir!

Coemgenus

[quote author=Coemgenus link=board=idiom;num=1062085111;start=0#5 date=10/05/03 at 15:53:10]
Auch für mir!

Shouldn’t that be "Auch für mich"?
(aus/bei/mit/nach/seit/von/zu vs. ohne/bis/gegen/um/durch/für)

I had a German girlfriend once and had a lot of arguments because she would always correct me like this. I would say, for instance "Wir gehen jetzt zu Hause" and she would look at me disdainfully and say "Nach Hause" with a very low and threatening sort of voice. >:( Needless to say it didn’t last.  :)

Yes Spiff, you are right.
Something does last then ;D
Actually in a shortened sentence like that you would even change the word order. The usual expression is ‘Für mich auch’.

scato

Indeed it should.
„Ouch“ von mir!

Coemgenus

This must be why they (mostly) did away with cases in English.

Ilka

on Aug 28th, 2003, 7:34pm, stickler wrote:

The literal translation of the Hebrew phrase, incidentally, is "You are as the little man in the eye" (one’s own reflection in the pupil of another’s eye).

[quote author=M._Henri_Day link=board=idiom;num=1062085111;start=0#3 date=09/29/03 at 12:49:12]
Perhaps we could entice Agoraphile to comment on this matter ?...

OK, Henri, you’ve enticed me.

The modern Hebrew word for pupil of the eye is ishon, little man, from ishon ayin, little man in the eye.

Klein notes that Arabic uses a cognate, insan al-ayn.