The English phrase apple of my eye arises from an Old English us

In a surprising number of unrelated languages, the etymological meaning of the term for pupil is "little person".^[21] This is true, for example, of the word pupil itself: this comes into English from Latin pūpilla, which means "doll, girl", and is a diminutive form of pupa, "girl". (The double meaning in Latin is preserved in English, where pupil means both "schoolchild" and "dark central portion of the eye within the iris".)^[22] This may be because the reflection of one's image in the pupil is a minuscule version of one's self.^[23] In the Old Babylonian period (c. 1800-1600 BC) in ancient Mesopotamia, the expression "protective spirit of the eye" is attested, perhaps arising from the same phenomenon.

 

apple of discord a subject of dissension. ???? This expression refers to the Greek myth in which a golden apple inscribed ‘for the fairest’ was contended for by the goddesses Hera, Athene, and Aphrodite. the apple of your eye a person or thing of whom you are extremely fond and proud. ???? In Old English, the phrase referred to the pupil of the eye, considered to be a globular solid body; it came to be used as a symbol of something cherished and watched over. apples and oranges (of two people or things) irreconcilably or fundamentally different. North...