Big Apple Big Onion

[Fred Shapiro]

On Tue, 14 Jan 2003, Daniel Cassidy wrote:

I believe the origin of the Big Apple and the Big Onion as monickers for my
hometown of NYC involves the Irish language. The Irish words Áth (pronounced
Ahh), for a ford or river crossing, and béal (pron. beeul), for the mouth of
a river, appear in hundreds of place names in Ireland.

***

Is this what is known as "trolling"?

Fred Shapiro


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------