Tag: Apple
There are 4 posts.
Feeling fruity: where do the names of fruits come from?
Fruits are an essential part of our diet and also of our language. Something we approve of may be a peach, a plum, top banana, or the apple of our eye. Someone we dislike is a bad apple, while a particularly difficult character can drive us bananas. We can show our disdain for someone by […]
more11 popular expressions explained
Why do we bury the hatchet? The phrase, meaning to end an argument or conflict, refers back to a Native American custom in the seventeenth century whereby a hatchet or tomahawk would be buried in the ground to signal the laying down of arms and the declaration of peace between warring groups. Why do we […]
moreThe etymology of apple
The below is excerpted from The Diner’s Dictionary. The apple was probably the earliest of all fruits to be cultivated by human beings. Its wild ancestor was a sharp, mouth-puckering little thing, like today’s crab apple, and this abel-, as our Indo-European ancestors called it, no doubt needed sweetening with honey. But as it spread through […]
moreThe rise of the app
For the increasing number of us who own a smartphone or tablet, apps have become a part of 21st century life. And they’re big business: the market in apps is now worth billions of pounds a year, and is growing rapidly. As smartphones — and the apps that run on them — have become more […]
more