The Apple We All Ate

The blog was started to shed light on some of the mysterious things that we find around. With the rise of feminism, we are challenging and questioning the basic building blocks of our society including our culture and literature. In such a rebellious time, one small question that many people forget about is this:

Why the Adam’s Apple Is Called the Adam’s Apple?

We all know that the Adam’s apple refers to the lump/protrusion formed by the angle of the thyroid cartilage surrounding the larynx (voice box) in humans. It occurs in both men and women, but women have a smaller protrusion generally (exceptions are present).
The general consensus among netizens is the term has a biblical origin. This leads one to assume that as with most things, the story is somehow related to the patriarchal origins of our society. Let’s take a closer look at the story.

The bible says (I never thought I’d use this phrase ever), Adam ate a fruit (supposedly “Apple”) from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Eve ate it too, but Adam ate it first and a big chunk of it got stuck in his throat. Eve apparently ate a smaller piece and thus got away with it. That is why its referred to as Adam’s Apple. But, as with almost all the stories of the bible, this origin story is very debatable.

Here is a Today I found out post that talks about how the fruit could not have been an apple. And to be honest, the story is not really written anywhere in the Bible, its just an ancient anecdote passed on. The story above is short, sweet, and completely justifies why the name is given. But, it is absolute bullshit.
The actual origins of the word is some sort of misinterpretation.

The famous linguist Alexander Gode claimed that the Latin phrase to designate the “laryngeal prominence” was probably translated wrongly since the beginning. The Latin phrase was “pomum Adami”. This, in turn came from the Hebrew, “tappuach ha adam” meaning “apple of man”. The confusion lies in the fact that the proper noun “adam” in Hebrew means man, and “tafuach” means “swelling”. The phrase probably originated as “swelling of man” and then was poorly translated to “apple of man/Adam” in Latin. Finally, “Adam’s apple” in English. Man is a general term for humans irrespective of gender. Thus, initially the term had no sexist meaning or reference, but it was added as an artefact of the mis-translation.

The guys at Merriam-Webster have another story to tell about this. According to them, the organ was originally referred to as “pomegranate” (yes, the fruit) by medieval Arab medical writers. Pomegranate is “pomum granatum” in Latin, which was later modified to “pomum Adami”. Phew! so many confusing origins for the name of a single organ. The guys claim that this is the original origin. However, none of the people provide any actual piece of evidence that points to the origin.
I think we can all agree on this; the human kind is obsessed with apples. From Adam, to Newton, and Jobs.

P.S. Apple is my favourite fruit. Hope this makes me famous too!