{"id":35318,"date":"2015-09-25T13:06:37","date_gmt":"2015-09-25T12:06:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=35318"},"modified":"2015-09-29T10:09:43","modified_gmt":"2015-09-29T09:09:43","slug":"jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-adams-apple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stg-blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2015\/09\/25\/jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-adams-apple\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Adam\u2019s apple"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"jeffrey_aronson\"<\/a>The Hebrew name of the first man, Adam\u00a0(\u05d0\u05d3\u05dd<\/strong>), was also used to mean \u201cman\u201d itself, although the more usual word is \u201cish\u201d (\u05d0\u05d9\u05e9<\/strong>). The origin of the name is unknown, but the punning author of Genesis juxtaposes the name Adam with the word for the dust of the earth, in Hebrew adamah (\u05d0\u05d3\u05dd\u05d4<\/strong>), from which Adam was made. The Latin equivalent is the idea that homo<\/em> was made from humus<\/em>. The Hebrew word for red, adom, reflecting the colour of the dust, may be connected, but there are other theories, such as connections with an Ethiopian word meaning \u201cfair\u201d, an Akkadian word meaning \u201cmaker\u201d, and an Arabic word meaning \u201ccreature\u201d. One cannot also ignore the fact that the Hebrew word for \u201cblood\u201d is dam (\u05d3\u05dd<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

\u201cAdam\u201d has many metaphorical connections. Adam\u2019s ale or wine is water, real wine having been discovered by Noah. Adam\u2019s profession is husbandry\u2014in Hebrew \u201cish oved adamah\u201d (\u05d0\u05d9\u05e9 \u05e2\u05d1\u05d3\u00a0<\/strong>\u05d0\u05d3\u05dd\u05d4<\/strong>) is a man who works the earth, as is George in Greek (\u03b3\u03b5\u03c9\u03c1\u03b3\u03cc\u03c2, a farmer, from \u03b3\u1fc6 \u1f14\u03c1\u03b3\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd, to work the earth). Adam’s flannel is the common mullein, Verbascum thapsus<\/em>, of the Scrophulariaceae family, with its large soft woolly leaves, traditionally used<\/a> to treat respiratory disorders, tumours, urinary tract infections, and skin diseases, and more recently touted as a possible treatment for tuberculosis<\/a> and Trichomonas vaginalis<\/a><\/em> infection. Some species of yucca, such as Yucca<\/em> filamentosa <\/em>and Yucca gloriosa<\/em>, whose glycosides have in vitro antifungal activity<\/a>, are called Adam’s needle or needle and thread.<\/p>\n

Adam\u2019s bridge, a limestone chain between India and Sri Lanka (picture), was, so the Ramayana tells us, built by Rama when his wife was abducted by the demon king of Ceylon, Ravana. Adam\u2019s peak, a site of Buddhist pilgrimage, is a mountain in Sri Lanka (picture) where you can see the sri pada or sacred footprint, a rock formation near the summit; to whom the footprint is attributable depends on your religion\u2014Buddhists suppose it to be that of Buddha and Hindus that of Shiva, while others suggest St Thomas or Adam, who supposedly fell there from paradise and expiated his original sin by standing on one foot for 1000 years.<\/p>\n

\"aronson_adambridge\"<\/a>\"aronson_adampeak\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Pictures: Adam\u2019s bridge seen from the air (left) and Adam\u2019s peak<\/em><\/p>\n

Adam\u2019s rib is woman (in Hebrew ishah, \u05d0\u05d9\u05e9\u05d4<\/strong>) from the account in Genesis that God put Adam to sleep (the first general anaesthetic) and fashioned Eve from one of his ribs. Adam\u2019s curse is the need to work for a living. The old Adam, \u201cth\u2019offending Adam\u201d in Shakespeare\u2019s words, refers to our atavistic, particularly sinful, urges. And the Old English word throtbolla<\/a> (throat-bowl), listed in the Epinal glossary<\/a>, is now called the Adam\u2019s apple.<\/p>\n

Genesis describes the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as p\u2032ree (\u05e4\u05e8\u05d9<\/em><\/strong>), which simply means a fruit. The Vulgate, a late fourth century Latin translation of the Bible, compiled from various sources, translated \u201cp\u2032ree\u201d as \u201cmalum\u201d, which originally meant any tree fruit. The specific fruit depended on a qualifying word: malum citreum was a citron, malum cotoneum a quince, malum granatum a pomegranate, malum persicum a peach. Later \u201cmalum\u201d was used to mean an apple. The fact that malum also meant trouble, pain, or hardship may have encouraged its choice for the name of the Edenic fruit. The modern Hebrew word for an apple is \u201ctapuach\u201d (\u05ea\u05e4\u05d5\u05d7<\/strong>), a word that also appears in the Bible, translated in the Authorized Version as \u201capple\u201d, although it was more probably a quince.<\/p>\n

When the term \u201cAdam\u2019s apple\u201d entered English in the early 15th<\/sup> century it was used to describe not an apple, but a range of citrus fruits, such as Citrus maxima<\/em>, the pomelo or shaddock, and Citrus limetta<\/em>, a type of sweet lime. By the late 15th<\/sup> century it was being used to describe a banana or plantain, also called an apple of paradise. Then in the early 17th<\/sup> century it made its first appearance to describe the thyroid cartilage, which some also called \u201cAdam\u2019s morsel\u201d. When Adam, it was said, swallowed the fruit, by then supposed to be an apple, the hand of God stopped it in his throat. This myth, not recounted in the Bible, was an attempt to explain the fact that the thyroid cartilage is prominent in men and not in women.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, the plural of the Hebrew word p\u2032ree, a fruit, is p\u0113rot, which, when written in Hebrew (\u05e4\u05e8\u05d5\u05ea<\/strong>) looks as if it could be pronounced \u201cfruit\u201d. Just coincidence, surely?<\/p>\n

Jeffrey Aronson<\/strong> is a clinical pharmacologist, working in the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine in Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences. He is also president emeritus of the British Pharmacological Society.<\/em><\/p>\n

Competing interests:\u00a0None declared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Hebrew name of the first man, Adam\u00a0(\u05d0\u05d3\u05dd), was also used to mean \u201cman\u201d itself, although the more usual word is \u201cish\u201d (\u05d0\u05d9\u05e9). The origin of the name is unknown, but the punning author of Genesis juxtaposes the name Adam with the word for the dust of the earth, in Hebrew adamah (\u05d0\u05d3\u05dd\u05d4), from which […]<\/p>\n

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