Apple of my eye
The phrase “apple of my eye” today means someone or something you cherish above all others. It is used to describe a person who holds a very special place in your heart.
Originally, the expression came from a real part of the eye—the pupil, the dark center of the eye. The term first appears in written Old English from the 9th century, in a translation of a religious work connected to Alfred the Great.
In Shakespeare’s time, the phrase was still connected to the eye’s pupil. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Oberon says the love-potent juice should “sink in apple of his eye.” In Love’s Labour’s Lost, a character mentions “the apple of her eye” as well.
The phrase also shows up in the King James Bible (1611) and later Bible translations. But the use of “apple” here comes from English idiom, not from Biblical Hebrew.
The Hebrew roots are a bit more complex. The common expression for the pupil in Hebrew is ‘iyshown ‘ayin (אישון עין). It most likely means the dark part of the eye, rather than something called an “apple.” Some people have suggested a literal or playful idea like “Little Man of the Eye,” since ‘iysh means “man,” but most scholars think it refers to the pupil or eyeball. In Zechariah 2:8 you’ll see the phrase bava ‘ayin (בבה עין), and scholars disagree about its exact meaning, with many leaning toward a reference to the eyeball itself rather than an “apple.”
So today we use “apple of my eye” to describe someone you deeply treasure, while its roots trace back through old English poetry, biblical-language ideas about the eye, and long-standing imagery of the pupil.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 11:27 (CET).