"Big Apple" prostitution etymology

[Gerald Cohen]

On Feb. 10, 2002 Barry Popik wrote:
>BIG APPLE "WHORE THEORY" REAPPEARS (continuing saga)
>    I checked again, and the Big Apple "whore theory" is back on the
>web.  Salwen just redesigned Salwen.com, that's all.  The
>counter--showing how many people are reading this libel--doesn't
>work.
>    People on a JEOPARDY! web site (Google for "Big Apple" and
>"bordello") read Salwen's whore theory last month, then read Rudy
>Giuliani citing my research, and evaluated it as a web-site "tossup."



For the benefit of newcomers to this list, there is not a shred of
evidence--none, zero, zip, nada--for the etymology of "The Big Apple"
deriving from prostitutes. This topic has been treated in detail in
ads-l messages (available in the archives) and in the May 2001 issue
of my _Comments on Etymology_, pp.4-19.

   Also, BTW, Popik has done excellent work on "The Big Apple,"
particularly his discovery of two obscure 1920s articles by turf
writer John J. Fitz Gerald explaining how he (Fitz Gerald) first
heard "the big apple" (= NYC racetracks) from two African-American
stable hands in New Orleans. Popik also figured out that this
acquiring of the term occurred on Jan. 13 or 14, 1920.  Popik's work
(generally speaking) has been publicized both in a Dear Abby column
and a Wall Street Journal article, among others, and there is no
doubt that it can stand up to scrutiny.

    The prostitution etymology, by contrast, falls apart upon even a
casual examination.

---Gerald Cohen