How Do You Like Them Apples?

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Toffee apple" was a British term not used, so far as I know, in the
American army in WW1.

Even had it been, any connection to "How do you like them apples?" strikes
me as absurdly fanciful.

JL

On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 1:05 PM, Baker, John <JBAKER at stradley.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Baker, John" <JBAKER at STRADLEY.COM>
> Subject:      How Do You Like Them Apples?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "How do you like them apples?" is a rhetorical question, asking how the
> listener or supposed listener likes some development that is very good or
> very bad from the listener's viewpoint.  Its origin is unknown.  HDAS has
> it, in the form "how do you like them grapes," from 1926.  The leading
> theory is that it derives from the use of "toffee apples," a kind of
> anti-tank mortar used in World War I, but the known cites were a little
> late for World War I.
>
> The question was recently discussed on the Straight Dope Message Board,
> which has led to more information, based in part on a contribution by SDMB
> contributor Peter Morris.  "I [don't] like them apples" was a sort of
> standardized usage error often seen on tests of English grammar.  Examples
> include the Common Schools of Cincinnati Annual Report 142 (1875) (Google
> Books); the Denton (Maryland) Journal (July 16, 1881), at 2 (Access
> Newspaper Archive); and Robert John McLaughlin, Language Notes for Fifth
> Grade 15 (1904) (HathiTrust).
>
> The earliest use of the phrase is from a company history from the World
> War I period, History of Company A, 307th Engineer Regiment, 82d Division,
> United States Army 148 (1919) (Google Books).  "How do you like them
> apples?" is in the reminiscences section, as one of several standalone
> humorous quotations.  The cite shows the looked-for link to World War I,
> but makes no reference to "toffee apples."  The other quotations in this
> section seem to have more to do with the privations of military life.
>
> A second early example is from the Baltimore and Ohio Magazine (Aug.
> 1920), at 57 (Google Books), where it is the "moral" of a humorous
> railroading story told in rhyme (the moral is unrhymed).
>
> I think that there is little doubt that the intentionally ungrammatical
> usage was meant as a contrast to the older examples in which "I like [or
> don't like] them apples" was taught as an error.  What is not clear is
> whether the apples also have some additional signification.
>
>
> John Baker
>
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