Too many apples from Keren

Dear Word Spy,

What can you tell me about the word apple, please?

Thank you, friendly spy, your friend Keren

Dear Keren,

That's the friendliest message I've every received!

Now, apple. It's a great sounding word, I really like it. In the beginning, in Old English (what people used to speak about 1000 years ago), the word "apple" was used for any old fruit. So that meant other fruits were thought of as kinds of apple. Have a look:

apple of paradise - banana
love apple - tomato
Persian apple - peach
finger apple - date
apple of the earth - potato
Kydonian apple - quince

and of course the Word Spy's favourite fruit, the Pine-apple!

Have you ever heard of the Big Apple? I'll give you a hint, you can't eat it... Let me know if you find out.

As for the expression, "she'll be apples" - we'll leave that for another post!

from your very friendly neighbourhood spy,

The Word Spy