The Apple of My Eye
The phrase ‘apple of my eye’ refers to someone or something that is extremely special or important to someone. It is more often used to talk about a loved one rather than an object. This phrase is not commonly spoken, but most English speakers will know it.
Example: My sweetheart. You are the apple of my eye.
This is a very old idiom. Its origins date back to Old English (King Aelfred – Gregory’s Pastoral Care – circa 885 AD) when the phrase was ‘aperture at the center of the eye’ meaning pupil. Sometimes the apple of the eye referred to the whole eyeball as well. Because of the ubiquity of apples, they were a very recognizable spherical object. In the 9th century, it would be an easy way to describe the shape of an eye. Apple may have developed from the Anglo-Saxon word, “rappel”, meaning both ‘apple’ and ‘pupil’.
In the 1590s, Shakespeare used the phrase in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A character, Robin Goodfellow, puts a drop of flower extra (which was struck by cupid’s arrow) into a sleeping man’s eye: “Flower of this purple dye, hit with cupid’s archery, sink in apple of his eye.” The phrase must have been popular at that time as early translations (1611 – King James Bible) of the bible used the phrase as well.
The apple of my eye gained a lot of popularity after 1816 when it was included in the book, Old Mortality by Sir Walter Scott: “Poor Richard was to me as an eldest son, the apple of my eye.”
BONUS: Pupil comes from a Latin word (pupilla) meaning little doll. When you look in someone’s eye, you see a small reflection of yourself. It is kind of like a doll.
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Reference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_of_my_eye
https://www.theidioms.com/apple-of-eye/
http://www.word-detective.com/2010/06/apple-of-ones-eye/
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/the-apple-of-my-eye.html
https://www.deseret.com/1999/12/19/19481164/apple-of-my-eye-comes-from-bible
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