apple of someone's eye

English

WOTD – 12 May 2024

Etymology

PIE word
*h₂ébōl

From Middle English appel of the eie (“pupil of the eye; cornea; (figurative) something highly valued”), from Old English æppel on the ēagan, used in biblical texts (Deuteronomy 32:10, Psalm 17:8; Proverbs 7:2, Lamentations 2:18, and Zechariah 2:8; compare the quotations) as a calque of Biblical Hebrew אִישׁוֹן עֵינוֹ (ʾîšôn ʿênô, “pupil of the eye”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌæpl̩‿əv sʌmwʌnz ˈaɪ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌæp(ə)l‿əv sʌmwʌnz ˈaɪ/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪ
• Hyphenation: ap‧ple of some‧one’s eye

Noun

apple of someone's eye (plural apples of someone's eye)

1. (idiomatic) The object of somebody's affections; a person (or sometimes a thing) that someone strongly prefers; a favourite, a loved one.

   Sara was never the same after losing her daughter, the apple of her eye.

   • 1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble, […] (Coverdale Bible), [Cologne or Marburg]: [Eucharius Cervicornus and Johannes Soter?], →OCLC, Psalm xvj:[8], folio xiiij, recto, column 2:

     Kepe me as the apple of an eye, defende me vnder the ſhadowe of thy wynges.

     Psalm 17 in modern versions of the Bible.

   • 1584 (date written), Richard Hakluyt, “What Speciall Meanes may Bringe Kinge Phillippe from His Highe Throne, and Make Him Equall to the Princes His Neighboures; wherewithall is Shewed His Weaknes in the West Indies”, in A Particuler Discourse Concerning the Greate Necessitie and Manifolde Comodyties that are Like to Growe to this Realme of Englande by the Westerne Discoueries Lately Attempted, […]; published in Charles Deane, editor, A Discourse on Western Planting, […] (Collections of the Maine Historical Society, Second Series; II), Cambridge, Mass.: […] John Wilson and Son [for the Maine Historical Society], 1877, →OCLC, page 59:

     If you touche him [Philip II of Spain] in the Indies, you touche the apple of his eye; for take away his treasure, which is neruus belli [the sinews of war], and which he hath almoste oute of his West Indies, his olde bandes of souldiers will soone be dissolved, his purposes defeated, his power and strengthe diminished, his pride abated, and his tyranie utterly suppressed.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 32:9–10, column 1:

     For the Lords portion is his people: Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a deſert land, and in the wasſe howling wilderneſſe: Hee ledde him about, he inſtructed him, hee kept him as the apple of his eye.

   • 1816, Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter VII, in Tales of My Landlord, […], volume III (Old Mortality), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for William Blackwood, […]; London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 139:

     [P]oor Richard was to me as an eldest son, the apple of my eye, and my destined heir; but he died in his duty, and I—I— […] I live to avenge him.

   • 1858 December 11, “The Smithfield Club Show”, in The Illustrated London News, volume XXXIII, number 949, London: George C. Leighton […], →OCLC, page 557, column 1:

     It lost, moreover, on its very first evening, one of the very apples of its eye in the removal of Mr. Brown's grand heifer, who was the gold medallist of her sex. She was seized with distemper, and at once removed to an adjacent stall.

   • 1972 October 27, Stevie Wonder (lyrics and music), “You Are the Sunshine of My Life”, in Talking Book, Detroit, Mich.: Tamla, →OCLC:

     You are the sunshine of my life / That's why I'll always be around / You are the apple of my eye / Forever you'll stay in my heart

   • 1981 (date recorded), “Prowlin’”, in Dominic Bugatti, Frank Musker, Christopher Cerf (lyrics), Grease 2: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, New York, N.Y.: RSO Records, published 11 June 1982, →OCLC:

     You see the apple of your eye, stackin' peaches in a five foot pile / Just waitin' for some guy to come, and take her rollin' down the aisle

   • 2000 February 29, Lou Watts, Harry Hamer, Danbert Nobacon, Dunstan Bruce, Jude Abbot, Boff Whalley, Alice Nutter, Neil Ferguson (lyrics and music), “She’s Got All the Friends That Money Can Buy”, in WYSIWYG, performed by Chumbawamba, London: EMI, →OCLC:

     She's got all the friends that money can buy / She's the apple of her daddy's eye

   • 2014, Mary Ellen Bramwell, “Healing”, in The Apple of My Eye, [Castroville, Tex.]: Black Rose Writing, published 2020, →ISBN, part 3 (Gathering Light), page 223:

     I hoped that he had truly loved us, that we had honestly been the apples of his eye.

Related terms

• apple of the eye
• eye-apple

Translations

object of somebody’s affections; person (or sometimes a thing) that someone strongly prefers

• Afrikaans: oogappeltjie, oogappel
• Arabic: قُرَّةُ عَيْن f (qurratu ʕayn)
• Azerbaijani: gözün ağı-qarası, bəbək (az), göz bəbəyi
• Catalan: la nina dels ulls f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 心肝寶貝／心肝宝贝 (zh) (xīngān bǎobèi)

• Dutch: oogappel (nl) m
• Esperanto: pupilo de sia okulo
• Finnish: silmäterä (fi)
• French: prunelle de ses yeux (fr)
• German: Augapfel (de) m
• Greek: κόρη οφθαλμού (kóri ofthalmoú)
• Hebrew: בָּבַת עַיִן (he) f (bavát 'áyin)
• Hindi: आँख का तारा m (ā̃kh kā tārā)
• Hungarian: szeme fénye
• Japanese: 目に入れても痛くないもの (me ni iretemo itakunai mono)
• Macedonian: please add this translation if you can
• Navajo: ayóó ábídóóʼní
• Polish: oczko w głowie (pl) n
• Portuguese: menina dos olhos (pt) f
• Romanian: lumina ochilor f
• Russian: свет оче́й m (svet očéj), зени́ца о́ка f (zeníca óka)
• Scottish Gaelic: dearc na sùla f
• Serbo-Croatian: zjenica oka f
• Spanish: el ojito derecho de alguien m, la niña de sus ojos f
• Swedish: ögonsten (sv) c
• Turkish: gözbebeği (tr)
• Ukrainian: світло моїх очей (svitlo mojix očej)

Further reading

• apple of my eye on Wikipedia.Wikipedia