“The Big Apple” is a nickname for New York City. It was first popularized in the 1920s by John J. Fitz Gerald, a sports writer for the New York Morning Telegraph. Its popularity since the 1970s is due to a promotional campaign by the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau, known now as NYC & Company.
Although the history of the Big Apple was once thought a mystery, research over the past two decades, primarily by amateur etymologist Barry Popik and Gerald Cohen of Missouri University of Science and Technology, has provided a reasonably clear picture of the term’s history. Previously, there were a number of false etymologies, including a claim that the term derived from a New York brothel whose madam was known as Eve. This was subsequently exposed as a hoax and has been replaced on the source web site with more accurate information.
The earliest citation for “big apple” is the 1909 book The Wayfarer in New York, by Edward Martin, writing: “Kansas is apt to see in New York a greedy…