![]() ![]() In Old English the word apple was used to describe any round fruit that grew on a tree. It has also been suggested by Cornell University researchers that the quercetin found in apples protects brain cells against neuro-degenerative disorders like Alzheimer's Disease.Īpples may be good for us but it wasn't their precise medicinal properties that were being exalted when this phrase was coined. They also reduce tooth decay by cleaning one's teeth and killing off bacteria. They contain Vitamin C, which aids the immune system, and phenols, which reduce cholesterol. "Ait a happle avore gwain to bed, An' you'll make the doctor beg his bread or as the more popular version runs: An apple a day Keeps the doctor away."Īpples have a good claim to promote health. In 1913, Elizabeth Wright recorded a Devonian dialect version and also the first known mention of the version we use now, in Rustic Speech and Folk-lore: Eat an apple on going to bed, And you'll keep the doctor from earning his bread."Ī number of variants of the rhyme were in circulation around the turn of the 20th century. The February 1866 edition of Notes and Queries magazine includes this: There's a fair chance that this little maxim originated there as the earliest known example of its use in print makes that claim. It isn't often that I get the opportunity to list Wales as the source of a commonplace English phrase. What's the origin of the phrase 'An apple a day keeps the doctor away'? The proverb 'An apple a day keeps the doctor away' has a straightforward literal, and very probably correct, meaning - that the eating of fruit maintains good health. Proverbs What's the meaning of the phrase 'An apple a day keeps the doctor away'?. ![]()
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