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The phrase ''apple of my eye'' refers to something or someone that one cherishes above all others.〔Oxford English Dictionary: Apple (section 6 B) "the particular object of a person's affection or regard〕 == Origin == The Bible references below (from the King James Version, translated in 1611) contain the English idiom "apple of my eye." However the Hebrew literally says, "little man of the eye." The Hebrew idiom also refers to the pupil, and has the same meaning, but does not parallel the English use of "apple." The earliest appearance of the word is found in King Aelfred's writing in ninth century. Before it means "favorite," it was literally meaning "aperture at the center of the human eye" which means the pupil.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.word-detective.com/2010/06/apple-of-ones-eye/ )〕 Shakespeare also used it in the 1590s when he wrote ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'':
It also appears in the King James Bible Translation from 1611: Deuteronomy 32:10
in the Book of Psalms 17:8
in Proverbs 7:2
Lamentations 2: 18
as well as in Zechariah 2:8
The original Hebrew for this idiom, in all but Zechariah 2:8, was 'iyshown 'ayin (אישון עין), and can be literally translated as "Little Man of the Eye." This is a reference to the tiny reflection of yourself that you can see in other people's pupils. Other KJV translations of the word 'iyshown include ''dark'' and ''obscure'', as a reference to the darkness of the pupil. This Hebrew idiom is surprisingly close to the Latin version, pupilla, which means a little doll, and is a diminutive form of pupus, boy, or pupa, girl (the source also for our other sense of pupil to mean a schoolchild.) It was applied to the dark central portion of the eye within the iris because of the tiny image of oneself, like a puppet or marionette, that one can see when looking into another person's eye. In Zechariah 2:8, the Hebrew phrase used is bava 'ayin (בבה עין). The meaning of bava is disputed. It may mean "apple"; and if so, the phrase used in Zechariah 2:8 literally refers to the "apple of the eye." However, it appears that most Hebrew scholars think this Hebrew phrase communicated the meaning conveyed by the English word, "eyeball" (E.g., see ''The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament'', vol. 1, p. 107). The phrase is also used in Sir Walter Scott's Old Mortality, 1816:
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