BBB Etymology - The Big Apple
John J Fitz Gerald wrote a regular column in the old New York Morning Telegraph that he latterly renamed Around the Big Apple. He first used the name in 1921 to refer to the racetracks of New York: “The L T Bauer string is scheduled to start for ‘the big apple’ tomorrow”. He broadened the term to refer to the whole of New York in February 1924: “The Big Apple, the dream of every lad that ever threw a leg over a thoroughbred and the goal of all horsemen. There’s only one Big Apple. That’s New York”.
In 1924 Fitz Gerald wrote that he had first heard the term from a couple of black stable hands in New Orleans in 1920, for whom the Big Apple was the New York racetracks that represented the big time, the goal of every aspiring jockey and trainer.Where did those New Orleans stable hands get the phrase from, since it seemed to be well-known?
It seems from an early example of the phrase that people were thinking of an apple as a treat, and that for those New Orleans stable hands the New York racing scene was a supreme opportunity, like an attractive big red apple.
In 1924 Fitz Gerald wrote that he had first heard the term from a couple of black stable hands in New Orleans in 1920, for whom the Big Apple was the New York racetracks that represented the big time, the goal of every aspiring jockey and trainer.Where did those New Orleans stable hands get the phrase from, since it seemed to be well-known?
It seems from an early example of the phrase that people were thinking of an apple as a treat, and that for those New Orleans stable hands the New York racing scene was a supreme opportunity, like an attractive big red apple.
