NY: "THE BIG APPLE"

Hello People!
Why New York is also know as "THE BIG APPLE"?
This history was during a time a mystery. But, twenty years ago, two etymologists from the University of Missouri of Science and Technology, Barry Popik and Gerald Cohen, has provided a clear image picture of the term’s history. Before to this theory, there were a big number of false etymologies. One of this was that the term derived from the name of a brothel madam in the city called Eve.

The first time that this term was used took place in the 1909 book The Wayfarer in New York, by Edward Martin, writing: "Kansas is apt to see in New York a greedy city. . . . It inclines to think that the big apple gets a disproportionate share of the national sap". This quotation was recognized as a metaphoric use by the Random House Dictionary of Slang.

This term was popularized as a reference of the city by John J. Fitz Gerald in a number in the 1920s in reference to New York horse-racing. The earliest was a casual reference on May 3, 1921:
J. P. Smith, with Tippity Witchet and others of the L. T. Bauer string, is scheduled to start for "the big apple" to-morrow after a most prosperous Spring campaign at Bowie and Havre de Grace.

Later, Fitzgerald explained his use in the column “Around the Big Apple”.
“The Big Apple. The dream of every lad that ever threw a leg over a thoroughbred and the goal of all horsemen. There's only one Big Apple. That's New York”.


New York writers started to use "Big Apple" by the late of 1920s and used it outside of a horse-racing context. It became a popular song and dance in the 1930s. Other writers continued using this term in the 1940s and 1950s.


In the 60s, "the Big Apple" alluded to the old name for New York. In the early 1970s, under the leadership of its president, Charles Gillett, began promoting "the Big Apple" for the city. It has remained popular since then.

The New York's baseball team, the Mets, have a "Home Run Apple" that rises when a Mets player hits a home run. It has become a symbol of the Mets baseball team, recognized in the league as an iconic of the Mets' stadiums.


By Esperanza Reyes