different between apple vs beaver

English

Etymology

From Middle English appel, from Old English æppel (“apple, fruit in general, ball”), from Proto-West Germanic *applu, from Proto-Germanic *aplaz (“apple”) (compare Scots aipple, West Frisian apel, Dutch appel, German Apfel, Swedish äpple, Danish æble), from Proto-Indo-European *h?éb?l, *h?ébl? (“apple”) (compare Welsh afal, Irish úll, Lithuanian óbuol?s, Russian ??????? (jábloko), possibly Ancient Greek ??????? (ámpelos, “vine”)).

Pronunciation

• (US, UK) enPR: ?p?(?)l, IPA^(key): /?æp.?l/, [?æp.??]
• Rhymes: -æp?l
• Hyphenation: ap?ple

Noun

apple (plural apples)

1. A common, round fruit produced by the tree Malus domestica, cultivated in temperate climates. [from 9th c.]
   • c. 1378, William Langland, Piers Plowman:

     I prayed pieres to pulle adown an apple.
2. Any fruit or vegetable, or any other thing produced by a plant such as a gall or cone, especially if produced by a tree and similar to the fruit of Malus domestica; also (with qualifying words) used to form the names of specific fruits such as custard apple, rose apple, thorn apple etc. [from 9th c.]
   • 1585, Richard Eden (translating a 1555 work by Peter Martyr), Decades of the New World, v:

     Venemous apples wherwith they poyson theyr arrows.

   • 1607 (edition 1673), Topsell, Four-footed Beasts, page 516:

     The fruit or Apples of Palm-trees.

   • 1636, John Gerard, The Herball Or Generall Historie of Plantes: Very Much Enlarged and Amended by Thomas Johnson Citizen and Apothecarye of London, page 1356:

     This apple is called in high-Dutch, Zy?bel: in low-Dutch, Pijnappel: in English, Pineapple, Clog, and Cone. […] The whole cone or apple being boiled with fresh Horehound, saith Galen, […] maketh an excellent medicine for to clense the chest and lungs.

   • 1658, trans. Giambattista della Porta, Natural Magick, I.16:

     In Persia there grows a deadly tree, whose Apples are Poison, and present death.

   • 1765, Abraham Tucker, The Light of Nature Pursued, page 337:

     The fly injects her juices into the oak-leaf, to raise an apple for hatching her young.

   • 1784, James Cook, A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, II:

     Otaheite […] is remarkable for producing great quantities of that delicious fruit we called apples, which are found in none of the others, except Eimeo.

   • 1800, John Tuke, General View of the Agriculture of the North Riding of Yorkshire, page 150:

     It is generally thought, that the curled topped potatoe proceeds from a neglect of raising fresh sorts from the apple or [potato-]seed.

   • 1825, Theodric Romeyn Beck, Elements of Medical Jurisprudence, 2nd edition, page 565:

     Hippomane mancinella. (Manchineel-tree.) Dr. Peysonnel relates that a soldier, who was a slave with the Turks, eat some of the apples of this tree, and was soon seized with a swelling and pain of the abdomen.

   • 1833, Charles Williams, The Vegetable World, page 179:

     One kind of apple or gall, inhabited only by one grub, is hard and woody on the outside, resembling a little wooden ball, of a yellowish color, but internally it is of a soft, spongy texture.

   • 1853, Mrs. S. F. Cowper, Country Rambles in England, Or, Journal of a Naturalist, page 172:

     The cross-bill will have seeds from the apple, or cone of the fir—the green-finch, seeds from the uplands, or door of barn, or rick-yard.

   • 1889, United States. Department of Agriculture, Report of the Secretary of Agriculture, page 376:

     The "apple" or gall usually forms a somewhat kidney-shaped excrescence, attached by a small base on the concave side, and varying in size from a half an inch to an inch and a half in length.

3. Something which resembles the fruit of Malus domestica, such as a globe, ball, or breast.
   • 1705, J. S., City and Country Recreation, page 104:

     […] shrugging up her Shoulders, to shew the tempting Apples of her white Breasts, Then suddainly lets them sink again, to hide them, blushing, as if this had been done by chance.

   • 1761, An Universal History: From the Earliest Accounts to the Present Time, page 508:

     […] count-palatine of the Rhine, who shall carry the globe or imperial apple; and, on his left, the marquis of Brandenburg carrying the scepter.

   • 1851, Robert Bigsby, Old Places Revisited; Or the Antiquarians Enthusiast, page 200:

     The arms of Upland were a "golden apple," or globe, surrounded with a belt, in allusion to the monarchy.

   • 1956, Marion Hargrove, The Girl He Left Behind: Or, All Quiet in the Third Platoon, page 129:

     Andy picked up his two grenades and followed the line into the pits. The apples felt strangely heavy in his hands, and when he looked at them one was as ugly and lethal-looking as the other.

   • 1975, C. W. SMITH, Country Music IX, 256:

     A peasant blouse that showed the tops of those lovely little apples.

   • 2008, Harald Kleinschmidt, Ruling the Waves, Bibliotheca Humanistica & Refo

     Contrary to Henricus Martellus, Behaim included the tropics [on his globe...]. Evidently, there was no space for a Fourth Continent on Behaim's apple, although some recollection of the Catalan map seems to lie behind the shape of southern Africa.

   1. (baseball, slang, obsolete) The ball in baseball. [from 20th c.]
   2. (informal) When smiling, the round, fleshy part of the cheeks between the eyes and the corners of the mouth.
   3. The Adam's apple.
      • 1898, Hugh Charles Clifford, Studies in Brown Humanity: Being Scrawls and Smudges in Sepia, White, and Yellow, page 99:

        The sweat of fear and exertion was streaming down his face and chest, and his breath came in short, tearing, hard-drawn gasps and gulps, while the apple in his throat leaped up and down ceaselessly ...

      • 1922, Henry Williamson, Dandelion Days, page 113:

        Elsie went away with her parents to Belgium and the convent-school on the twelfth, and as they left The Firs in the battered station cab surrounded by boxes and trunks, Willie could not speak. The apple in his throat rose and remained there  […]

      • 1999, Liam O'Flaherty, The Collected Stories, Wolfhound Press (IE) (?ISBN)

        The apple in his neck was hitting against his collar every time he drew breath and he tore at his collar nervously.

      • 2005, Sandra Benitez, Night of the Radishes, Hyperion (?ISBN)

        The apple in his neck bobbles as he gulps. “You've got to be kidding.” “No, I'm not. Your inheritance amounts to maybe three hundred thousand dollars."

      • 2020, George R. R. Martin, A Storm of Swords, Bantam (?ISBN), page 959:

        If the Hound had not been moving, the knife might have cored the apple of his throat; instead it only grazed his ribs, and wound up quivering in the wall near the door. He laughed then, a laugh as cold and hollow as if it had come from the bottom of a deep well.

4. The fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, eaten by Adam and Eve according to post-Biblical Christian tradition; the forbidden fruit. [from 11th c.]
   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book X:

     Him by fraud I have seduced / From his Creator; and, the more to encrease / Your wonder, with an apple […].

   • 1976, Joni Mitchell, "Song for Sharon":

     Sharon you've got a husband

     And a family and a farm

     I've got the apple of temptation

     And a diamond snake around my arm
5. A tree of the genus Malus, especially one cultivated for its edible fruit; the apple tree. [from 15th c.]
   • 2000 PA Thomas, Trees: Their Natural History, page 227:

     This allows a weak plant to benefit from the strong roots of another, or a vigorous tree (such as an apple) to be kept small by growing on 'dwarfing rootstock'.
6. The wood of the apple tree. [from 19th c.]
7. (in the plural, Cockney rhyming slang) Short for apples and pears, slang for stairs. [from 20th c.]
8. (derogatory, ethnic slur) A Native American or red-skinned person who acts and/or thinks like a white (Caucasian) person.
9. (ice hockey slang) An assist.
10. (slang) A CB radio enthusiast.
    • 1977, New Scientist (volume 74, page 764)

      Because of overcrowding, many a CB enthusiast (called an "apple") is strapping an illegal linear amplifier ("boots") on to his transceiver ("ears") […]

Synonyms

• (a tree of the genus Malus): malus

Derived terms

Descendants

• Tok Pisin: apel
• ? Abenaki: aples (< apples)
• ? Assamese: ???? (apel)
• ? Bengali: ???? (apel)
• ? Dhivehi: ??????? (?falu)
• ? East Futuna: apo
• ? Fijian: yapolo
• ? Fiji Hindi: aapul
• ? Finnish: äpüli
• ? Malay: epal (Malaysia)
• ? Maori: ?poro
• ? Marshallese: ab??
• ? Sinhalese: ???? (æpal)
• ? Sotho: apole
• ? Telugu: ????? (?pil)
• ? Thai: ??????? (??p-bp??n)
• ? Yurok: ??pl?s (< apples)

Translations

Verb

apple (third-person singular simple present apples, present participle appling, simple past and past participle appled)

1. To become apple-like.
2. (obsolete) To form buds, bulbs, or fruit.
   • 1601 (1634), Philemon Holland (translator), Pliny, II, page 98:

     Either they floure, or they apple or els be ready to bring forth fruit.

   • 1796 (1800), Charles Marshall, Gardening, page 245:

     The cabbage turnep is of two kinds; one apples above ground, and the other in it.

See also

• malic
• (ethnic slur): coconut, Oreo, banana, Twinkie

References

Anagrams

• Appel, appel, pepla

Middle English

Noun

apple

1. Alternative form of appel

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?bi?v?/
• (General American) enPR: b??v?r, IPA^(key): /?biv?/
• Rhymes: -i?v?(?)
• Homophones: Belvoir, bever, bevor

Etymology 1

From Middle English bever, from Old English beofor (“beaver”), from Proto-Germanic *bebruz (“beaver”) (compare West Frisian bever, Dutch bever, French bièvre, German Biber, dialectal Swedish bjur), from Proto-Indo-European *b?éb?rus (“beaver”) (compare Welsh befer, Latin fiber, Lithuanian b?bras, Russian ???? (bobr), Avestan ????????????????????????? (bauura), ????????????????????????? (bauuri), Sanskrit ????? (bábhru, “mongoose; ichneumon”)), from Proto-Indo-European *b?erH- (“brown”). Related to brown and bear.

Noun

beaver (plural beavers or beaver)

1. A semiaquatic rodent of the genus Castor, having a wide, flat tail and webbed feet.
2. A hat, of various shapes, made from a felted beaver fur (or later of silk), fashionable in Europe between 1550 and 1850.
   • 1856-1858, William H. Prescott, History of the Reign of Philip II

     a broad beaver slouched over his eyes

   • 1896: For the White Rose of Arno by Owen Rhoscomyl

     The woman's hair and woman's beaver had both been jerked off, exposing the cropped head of a man...

3. (vulgar, slang) The pubic hair and/or vulva of a woman.
   • 2010 Dennis McFadden, Hart's Grove: Stories

     […] once she wore none at all, swears to this day that he saw her beaver that fateful Friday night.

4. The fur of the beaver.
5. Beaver cloth, a heavy felted woollen cloth, used chiefly for making overcoats.
6. A brown colour, like that of a beaver (also called beaver brown).

7. (slang) A man who wears a beard.
   • 1936 P.G. Wodehouse, Laughing Gas:

     The beards were false ones. I could see the elastic going over their ears. In other words, I had fallen among a band of criminals who were not wilful beavers, but had merely assumed the fungus for purposes of disguise.

Synonyms

• (hat): castor, castoreum (archaic)
• (fur): castorette
• (cloth): castor

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• Appendix:Animals

Etymology 2

See bevor.

Noun

beaver (plural beavers)

1. Alternative spelling of bevor (“part of a helmet”)
   • c. 1590, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 3, Act I, Scene 1,^[1]

     Lord Stafford’s father, Duke of Buckingham,

     Is either slain or wounded dangerously;

     I cleft his beaver with a downright blow:

   • 1600, Edward Fairfax, The Jerusalem Delivered of Tasso, XII, lxvii:

     With trembling hands her beaver he untied, / Which done, he saw, and seeing knew her face.

   • 1951 Adaptation of the 1885 Ormsby translation of Cervantes' Don Quixote, correcting Ormsby as to the portion of the helmet referred to by Cervantes (see Note 11 to Chapter II) at the suggestion of Juan Hartzenbusch, a 19th Century Director of the National Library of Spain.

     They laid a table for him at the door of the inn for the sake of the air, and the host brought him a portion of ill-soaked and worse cooked stockfish, and a piece of bread as black and mouldy as his own armour; but a laughble sight it was to see him eating, for having his helmet on and the beaver up, he could not with his own hands put anything into his mouth unless some one else placed it there, and this service one of the ladies rendered him.

   • 1974, Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur, or the Prince of Darkness, Faber & Faber 1992, p.128:

     As each one brings a little of himself to what he sees you brought the trappings of your historic preoccupations, so that Monsieur flattered you by presenting himself with beaver up like Hamlet's father's ghost!

Further reading

• beaver on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Castor on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• beaver on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• The Manual of Heraldry, Fifth Edition, by Anonymous, London, 1862, online at [2]

References