In early English translations of the Bible, however, the phrase appears as "apple of his eye." This probably developed from the Anglo-Saxon use of the word æppel for "pupil" as well as for "apple." Thus, the phrase developed into "apple of one's eye" and retained the meaning of something treasured.Ī cockle is a mollusk that lives in a hinged, heart-shaped shell, similar to that of a scallop shell, which lends it the nickname "heart clam." In the 17th-century, writers began likening the human heart to the shape and valves of the mollusk, and eventually cockle came to refer to the heart itself-and, specifically, to its ventricles because the two larger of the heart's four chambers look something like a cockle, which was noted by the ancient Romans who called the ventricles cochleae cordis ( cochlea means "snail" in Latin). The first use of the phrase appears in Deuteronomy, which reads "He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye." A more literal translation of the original Hebrew biblical text is actually "little man of his eye," which probably refers to the reflection of oneself that one sees in the eye of another person. The phrase is connected to the Bible, in which it appears in books of the Old Testament: Deuteronomy, Psalms, Proverbs, and Lamentations.
Having carefully observ'd the Eyes of several Fishes … I found that the … Pupil or Apple of the Eye, was very flat, like those in Human Creatures. In the past, the idiom actually referred to the actual pupil of the eye because it was viewed as a round, solid object comparable to an apple. Thus, when you call someone or something the " apple of your eye," you are telling them that they are cherished. Since the pupil is essential to vision, it was held to be something very precious. The extended sense of "a person with whom one has a romantic date or appointment" is a 20th-century extension.
The word then came to signify romantic meetings, as in blind date, double date, and hot date. It was not until the 19th century that date began to be used for an appointment or engagement at a specified time. The word was then borrowed into Middle English from Anglo-French. Anglo-French borrowed the word as date with the same meaning but also used it to denote any given point in time. Aprilis." (Translated: I gave at Rome April 1-the kalends of April.) A later wording was data Romae, "given at Rome," instead of datam Romae, "I gave at Rome." Data, the past participle of Latin dare, had the feminine ending in this case because of its association with the noun epistula, meaning "letter." (The common word data, referring to facts or information is related: it is from Latin datum, meaning "something given," and, in turn, datus, the past participle of dare.)ĭata eventually came to name the time of writing or executing a letter or document. The English word date in its temporal sense, in spite of semantic and phonetic similarity, has nothing to do etymologically with day but is descended from Latin dare, meaning "to give." In ancient Rome, the date of a letter was written in this manner: "Datam Romae Kal. The slang term beer goggles, which refers to the effects of alcohol thought of metaphorically as a pair of goggles that alter a person's perceptions especially by making others appear more attractive than they actually are, was brewed in the 1980s. The plural form goggles was first sighted as a designation for a pair of protective glasses in the early 18th century. The related term googly-eyed is then envisioned, but not until circa 1900.
In time, goggle begins to be used as an adjective to mean "protuberant" or "staring" (as in "the close-up focused on the actor's enormous goggle eyes"), which brings into focus goggle-eyed in the 18th century. English writer Samuel Butler, in his 17th-century narrative poem Hudibras, tersely exemplifies use of the verb in the phrase "wink, and goggle like an owl" (after hours, you might also see people goggling). It is believed to be an alteration of goggle, which is first seen as a verb meaning "to turn the eyes to one side or the other" in the 14th century. Its first appearance was caught in English in the late 19th century. Katy Perry made goo-goo eyes at contestant Nick Merico on “American Idol” Monday. The term " goo-goo eyes" implies a foolishly sentimental, romantic, or amorous glance (as in "she made goo-goo eyes at him").