Big Apples and Red Herrings

[George Thompson]

>
> Possibly alluding to idiomatic "big apple" expressions then floating around,
> like "to bet a big apple" ('to state with supreme assurance; to be absolutely
> confident of'), dated by OED3 to 1847.
>

Very good.

Thanks.

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

----- Original Message -----
From: Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
Date: Friday, May 15, 2009 6:36 pm
Subject: Re: Big Apples and Red Herrings
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

> On Fri, May 15, 2009 at 6:14 PM, George Thompson wrote:
>
> > What to make of this?
> >
> > POMONA'S LAST AND LARGEST.  [14 1/2 inches around; grown by Thomas
> > Gardner of Paramus]]  It was a "big apple."
> > N-Y Commercial Advertiser, September 4, 1848, p. 2, col. 3
> >
> > Doubtless no connection with our favorite "Big Apple", but why the quotation
> > marks?  Were "scare quotes" -- I believe they have been called that
> here,
> > I've never known a name for them -- in use 160 years ago?  I've the
> > impression that they are more recent.  Are the "" just meant to
> emphasize the
> > words?  "It was one hell of a big apple."
> > But if they are there to call attention to an allusion or
> catch-phrase, then
> > maybe there is some connection. . . ?

>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org