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Cassidy Hines
Dr. Xiqiao Wang
ENG 302
22 September 2015
The History of An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away
An apple a day keeps the doctor away is a seemingly simplistic phrase. It seems as if it
is simply a reminder to make healthy choices when having a meal, but the meaning actually goes
much deeper than that. Sure, apples provide a multitude of vitamins and nutrients that a person
needs in his or her daily diet, but there is also a history of harsh feelings towards doctors and the
medical industry in general. An apple a day keeps the doctor away is rooted in the history of
the medical field and is a case of both sociolinguistic and pragmatic interest.
The first credited affiliation with this phrase is given to the magazine Notes and Queries
in February of 1866 in Wales. The magazine cited a Pembrokeshire proverb and stated, Eat an
apple on going to bed, and youll keep the doctor from earning his bread (The Meaning and
Origin of the Expression). While it seems as if the use of the word apple is being used literally
in this passage, Old English referred to any circular fruit that grew on a tree as an apple.
Therefore, it is hard to tell if this use of a modern saying was referring to the current meaning of
an apple, so this phrase that seems so common today may not actually be talking about the
current literal meaning of the phrase (The Meaning and Origin of the Expression). The year that
this magazine was printed is important because it a little over a decade after the dawn of the
scientific revolution in medicine (Waller, 2002, p. 1). This adds to the meaning of the phrase
because germ theory was introduced in this time, so people were finally beginning to understand
that germs were the cause of illness, not sin and the four humors. It was during this time that

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researchers realized the benefits of vitamins and minerals that could be derived from eating fruits
and vegetables, which is key to the phrase at hand (Randolph, 2001, p. 338). This historical
approach to the evolution of the phrase is crucial in order to understand how the phrase
developed in the first place and changed with time.
Even though there were newly recognized benefits of fruits during this time, there was
also a longstanding negative social connotation towards doctors that continued into the early
twentieth century. Physicians were regarded with a sense of social inferiority because they were
waiting on patients hand and foot (Waller, 2002, 19). Doctors were rarely educated in early
medical history and they were often extremely poor. They traveled to their patients homes and
were not allowed to touch many of their patients because of the difference in class standing
between themselves and their patients (19). These factors resulted in many people not wanting to
see medical professionals or take part in their practices. Apart from having to pay for their
services (or lack thereof), why would anyone want an uneducated, poor mans opinion of health
ailments that were likely not to be fixed by the doctor anyway? These variables and the resulting
lack of desire to see doctors very well could have had an influence on the creation of the phrase,
Eat an apple on going to bed, and youll keep the doctor from earning his bread.
Through the years, this phrase has changed pragmatically in addition to socially. In 1913,
a woman named Elizabeth Wright is credited with recording a version of the phrase in Rustic
Speech and Folk-lore in a Devonian dialect that states: "Ait a happle avore gwain to bed, An'
you'll make the doctor beg his bread (The Meaning and Origin of the Expression). Pragmatic
change is shown through the differences in how this phrase was communicated at these different
times. There were only 47 years in between the records of both of these events, yet there was a
drastic change in both the dialect and even content of this phrase (The Meaning and Origin of the

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Expression). Geographically speaking, Wales and Devon are located very close to one another
and lie in the same continent, but the vast difference between the two phrases is enormous. This
could be due to language trends in these places or even immigration of different cultures to the
areas mixing with the original language, but all in all this is a phenomenal example of how
spoken language changes over time.
Today, language is still changing rapidly even if each person does not realize it. An
apple a day keeps the doctor away has changed numerous times throughout the years, yet it
probably is still not done evolving. Historically, this phrase is a product of the early beginnings
of the medical profession and the advancements that the industry has made in the last two
centuries. The negative social connotation towards doctors contributed to the lack of desire to
work with medical professionals and the services that they provided. The words and dialect that
have been used to communicate the phrase have changed, demonstrating pragmatic change
relating to the locational contexts that the saying was used in. Overall, An apple a day keeps the
doctor away today is seen as a reminder to lead a healthy lifestyle, yet it is an example of how
societal views and location can play a key factor in language use.
Works Cited
Randolph, Fillmore. "The Evolution of the U.S. Healthcare System." Science and Its Times. New
York: Gale, 2001. 336-338. Print.
"The Meaning and Origin of the Expression: An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away." An
Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away. Web. 21 Sept. 2015.
<http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/an-apple-a-day.html>.
Waller, John. The Discovery of the Germ: Twenty Years That Transformed the Way We Think
about Disease. New York: Columbia UP, 2002. Print.