When searching for the term "apple," the earliest articles I found were in the early 1850s. These articles all discussed in some way the apple as a fruit. The earliest scholarly source I could find was titled "A Study of US Apple Production" by Jon Miller in the Southern Economic journal published July of 1976. Some articles talked about the apple market and how abundant it was to just about everything but potatoes. One talked about the selection of apple trees available. Overall, it was very obvious that when "apple" was mentioned, there was one clear understanding of it: apple as a fruit.
However, nowadays whenever the word "apple" gets thrown around, people immediately begin to think of the multibillion dollar company that manufactures and distribute the iPhone, iPod, macbook, and countless other devices. Recent articles almost all read along the lines of "Apple Plans to Offer iPhone on Verizon" (by Miguel Heft, New York Times, October 9, 20010) and "Apple Sues Nexus One Maker HTC" (by Brad Stone, New York Times, July 17, 2010). In the hundreds of articles that turn up, very few talk about apple in terms of the fruit anymore, which is an astounding shift from the earliest thread of articles. Although the term "apple" still carries the fruit's name, its definition has almost been taken over by this communication company.
Hi Michelle,
ReplyDeleteThis is post had some great points. As a big fan of Apple I can personally say I hardly think of it as a fruit anymore. Although Apples are delicious I am a bigger advocate for Apple products.