The Big Apple
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November 19, 2024
The Big Apple1980s-present: Big Apple work by Gerald Cohen, Barry PopikSports/Games

Big Apples (Hudson Valley Renegades baseball team logo, 2024)

The Hudson Valley Renegades, a Minor League Baseball team High-A affiliate of the New York Yankees, based in Fishkill, New York. In November 2024, the Renegades announced that the team would be…

July 25, 2004
The Big ApplePre-1920s

Big Apples Are Top of the Barrel

The big apples, the best fruit, are "top of the barrel." This was well known by the late 19th century. It was speculated that farmers often placed the best apples on top of the barrel to…

December 28, 2025
The Big Apple1980s-present: Big Apple work by Gerald Cohen, Barry PopikFood/DrinkFood Festivals

Big Apples Fest (fall festival sponsored by Hudson Valley Renegades baseball team, 2025-present)

The Hudson Valley Renegades, a Minor League Baseball team High-A affiliate of the New York Yankees, based in Fishkill, New York. In November 2024, the Renegades announced that the team would be…

August 8, 2019
The Big Apple1970s: Big Apple Revival

Big Appling (to visit New York City, 1976)

The "Big Apple" dance became a national craze in 1937. "Governor Wins Praise for 'Big Appling'" -- dancing the Big Apple -- was printed in The News and Courier…

November 4, 2025
The Big Apple1980s-present: Big Apple work by Gerald Cohen, Barry Popik

Big Red Apple (red/communist + Big Apple, 2025)

Zohran Mamdani, a sociliast candidate, successfully ran for New York City mayor in 2025. It was said that the "Big Apple" (New York City's nickname) would become the "Red…

August 19, 2021
The Big Apple1920s: John J. Fitz Gerald and the N.Y. Morning Telegraph

Big Red Apple (sculpture in Cornelia, Georgia, 1926-present)

Several regions of North America have been billed as a "Land of the Big (Red) Apple." Cornelia, Georgia has an apple monument that reads: "HOMEOF THEBIG…

November 16, 2025
The Big ApplePre-1920s

Big Red Apple City, Wenatchee, Washington (1908)

Many places have called itself the "Home/Land of the Big (Red) Apples." Wenatchee, Washington, has also called itself the "Big Red Apple City." Wikipedia: Wenatchee, Washington…

April 27, 2023
The Big Apple1980s-present: Big Apple work by Gerald Cohen, Barry Popik

Bigger Apple (Manhattan Institute newsletter, 2020-present)

The Manhattan Institute is a conservative American think tank focused on domestic policy and urban affairs, located at 52 Vanderbilt Avenue in Manhattan. In 2020, the Manhattan Institute started…

April 24, 2021
The Big Apple1940s-1950s: Assorted Big Apple citations

Bill Johnson’s Big Apple (Arizona restaurants, 1956-2015)

Bill Johnson's Big Apple bar-b-que restaurant opened at 3757 East Van Buren in Phoenix, Arizona in December 1956. The "Big Apple" name supposedly came from 1937's Big Apple…

April 9, 2018
The Big Apple1970s-present: False Etymologies

Cab Calloway’s “Hepster’s Dictionary” (1938, 1944)

Cab Calloway (1907-1994) was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He published a "Hepster's Dictionary" in 1938, with another edition in 1944. The dictionary contained much Harlem…

August 3, 2022
The Big Apple1930s: Jazzing the Big Apple

Canned Apple (Big Apple dance + Can-Can dance, 1937)

Brooklyn-born jazz singer and entertainer Adelaide Hall (1901-1993), with the help of Anita Lou Mason of Los Angeles, developed the "Canned Apple" dance, a hybrid of the American…

October 6, 2013
The Big Apple1970s-present: False Etymologies

Chelsea Apple Orchard (1820s)

Clement Clarke Moore (1779-1863) -- perhaps best known as the credited author of the yuletide poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" -- lived in what he called Chelsea, in Manhattan. He had an…

July 5, 2004
The Big Apple1970s-present: False Etymologies

Damon Runyon (who never used “Big Apple”)

It's not difficult to see how this "Big Apple" attribution would occur. American writer Damon Runyon (1880-1946) was noted for his underworld slang. He had a character called…

July 12, 2004
The Big Apple1970s-present: False Etymologies

Depression Apple Sellers (1930s)

It is sometimes claimed that "Big Apple" comes from New York City's street apple stands during the Great Depression in the 1930s. This is incorrect. New York (NY) Morning Telegraph…

May 6, 2021
The Big Apple1970s: Big Apple Revival

Dracula Bites the Big Apple (short film, 1979)

Dracula Bites the Big Apple (1979) is a short film (22 minutes), explained on IMDb as "Dracula travels to New York for a change of scenery." There is a scene at Studio 54 with owner Steve…

July 12, 2004
The Big Apple1970s-present: False Etymologies

Edward Martin metaphor (1909)

A 1909 citation by Harper's editor Edward Sandford Martin (1856-1939) is often given as the first citation of "the Big Apple" to mean New York City. It probably shouldn't be…

July 27, 2025
The Big Apple1920s: John J. Fitz Gerald and the N.Y. Morning Telegraph

First “Big Apple” citation in New Orleans: July 17, 1921

New York Morning Telegraph track writer John J. Fitz Gerald (1892-1963) used "big apple" in his columns since at least May 3, 1921. It meant the "big time" of New York racing.…

July 27, 2025
The Big Apple1920s: John J. Fitz Gerald and the N.Y. Morning Telegraph

First “Big Apple” citation in Saratoga: March 10, 1922

New York Morning Telegraph track writer John J. Fitz Gerald (1892-1963, born in Saratoga Springs, New York) used "big apple" in his columns since at least May 3, 1921. It meant the…

July 12, 2004
The Big Apple1920s: John J. Fitz Gerald and the N.Y. Morning Telegraph

First “Big Apple” citation: May 3, 1921

Gerald Cohen found the first "Big Apple" in a John J. Fitz Gerald horse racing column. The term "big apple" meant the big time, big money New York tracks. From the New York…

July 12, 2004
The Big Apple1920s: John J. Fitz Gerald and the N.Y. Morning Telegraph

First “Big Apple” explanation: February 18, 1924

Above, the header from the 1924 newspaper column of John J. Fitz Gerald. Click to see a portion of the column which includes his use of "Big Apple." Part of a 1926 column is also…

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About the Website and Editor

BARRY POPIK is a contributor to the Oxford English Dictionary, Dictionary of American Regional English, Historical Dictionary of American Slang, Yale Book of Quotations and Dictionary of Modern Proverbs. Since 1990 he has also been a regular contributor to Gerald Cohen's Comments on Etymology.

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