why is new york called the big Apple??

Question

PLZ?????

Answer 1

I rather expected you'd get the "official" answer --that is the Barry Popik answer--based on Fitzgerald's articles. It's an important PART of the story. But sorry, it does not go far enough!

Notice that this explanation does notpull all the pieces together, nor does it actually tell you the SOURCE of the expression!! Fitzgerald was just relating an expression he first heard on a trip to New Orleans.

The New Orleans connection appears to be absolutely critical. Note that it fits in with the long recognized use of the term "big apple" among New York jazz musicians of the 1930s (New Orleans roots!)

And note that the fact that the term's first clearly DOCUMENTED use (by Fitzgerald) does NOT show us that the 'racetrack' application preceded its application to the jazz scene (it's hard to imagine how that would happen). It might well have happened the other way round!

So who coined the phrase, and why? I believe John Ciardi and Robert Hendrickson offer the best explanation, one which fits in very well with the Fitzgerald and jazz musician stories (though oddly Popik tends to be dismissive of it, perhaps thinking it somehow undercuts his work ?!) At any rate it makes a LOT of sense.

The explanation is simple:
The word "manzana" in Spanish means either apple or 'built up block of houses, neighborhood'. Ciardi suggests that the slang expression 'manzana prinicipale' i.e., 'main/big apple [or apple orchard]' was thrown around in New Orleans, a city with some old Spanish roots and expressions, not just French. (Popik seems to dislike the Spanish explanation because of the "French" background of New Orleans, but in fact there was more than one cultural influence in this area).

It's easy to see how such an expression might be picked up and used by folks in New Orleans to refer to some 'hot spot' where the MAIN action in a field (jazz, racing, whatever) was to be found --that was the place to be!

"In about 1910 jazz musicians there used it as a loose translation of the Spanish 'manzana principal,' the main 'apple orchard,' the main city block downtown, the place where all the action is." From the "Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins" by Robert Hendrickson (Facts on File, New York, 1997)."
http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/21/messages/1121.html

Answer 2

And then there's this web site -- http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/summary_why_is_new_york_called_the_big_apple/
...

SUMMARY: “Why is New York called the Big Apple?”
SHORT SUMMARY:

"The Big Apple" was the catchphrase of New York Morning Telegraph track writer John J. Fitz Gerald in the 1920s. He admitted this twice and it was the name of three of his columns. He picked up the term from African-American ("dusky" he called them) stable hands at the Fair Grounds racetrack in New Orleans, probably on January 14, 1920.

Fitz Gerald's first New York Morning Telegraph "Around the Big Apple" column, on February 18, 1924, proudly declared:

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.

The "Big Apple" racing circuit had meant "the big time," the place where the big money was to be won. Horses love apples, and apples were widely regarded as the mythical king of fruit. In contrast, the smaller, poorer tracks were called the "leaky roof circuit" or "bull ring" tracks.

"The Big Apple" became the name of a club in Harlem in 1934, and Harlem itself was referred to as "the Apple" at this time. A club in Columbia, South Carolina also took the "Big Apple" name, and it was here that 1937's short-lived national "Big Apple" dance craze began.

"The Big Apple" was revived in the 1970s by Charles Gillett, president of the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The origins of "the Big Apple" were solved in the 1990s by Gerald Cohen and Barry Popik. A "Big Apple Corner" street sign was dedicated in 1997 at West 54th Street and Broadway, where Fitz Gerald last lived.

Answer 3

This may just be folk etymology, but the story I've heard is that back in the day, travelling musicians used to call large cities "Apples" because of the -apolis ending that many of them had that in their names: Minne-apples, Indian-apples. New York, being the largest of these cities, was the BIG apolis, or The Big Apples. Somewhere along the line, "Apples" became singular and the name stuck.

Answer 4

New your is called the big apple because it is the most important city in the world. It is the HQ of many corperations and very well may be the most lively city in the world. Its pretty much where every cournty in the world will come back to.

Answer 5

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Answer 6

because it's rotten to the core !!!