The Apple of My Eye




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The Apple of My Eye : Phrases



Meaning:

Originally meaning the central aperture of the eye. Figuratively it is something, or more usually someone, cherished above others.


Example:







Origin:

The phrase is exceedingly old and first appears in Old English in a work attributed to King Aelfred (the Great) of Wessex, AD 885, entitled Gregory's Pastoral Care. The earliest recorded use in modern English is in Sir Walter Scott's Old Mortality, 1816:

"Poor Richard was to me as an eldest son, the apple of my eye."

It also appears in the Bible, Deuteronomy 32:10 (King James Version)

He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.

and Zechariah 2:8:

For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.





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