Adam's apple
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: Adam's apples
Etymology: Calque of Latin pomum Adami, which is found in the botanical sense from 1560 and the anatomical sense from 1600. According to the earliest sources, the anatomical usage derives from a common belief that Adam was punished by God for the fall of man by having a piece of the forbidden fruit lodged in his throat (see 1662 citation).
Senses: examples: text: That same bunch which is seen on the foreside of the Neck, is called Adams Apple, because the common people have a beliefe, that by the judgement of God, a part of that fatal Apple, abode sticking in Adams Throat, and is so communicated to his posterity
ref: 1662 [1651], Nicholas Culpeper, Abdiah Cole, transl., Bartholinus Anatomy, London: Peter Cole, translation of Protuberantia illa in collo anterius conspicua, dicitur Pomum Adami; [quia vulgo persuasum in Adami faucibus pomi fatalis partem ex pœna Divina remansisse, & ad posteros translatam] by Thomas Bartholin, page 123:
text: He was seated some way down a table at right angles to the one at which I sat, a man of mean appearance with a greyish complexion, thin, with a square nose, a heavy wiry moustache and a big Adam's apple sticking out between the wings of his collar.
ref: 1911, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, The New Machiavelli, London: John Lane; The Bodley Head […], →OCLC:
text: The thickness of his wrist and the greatness of his fingers made authentic the mighty frame of him hidden under loose dungaree pants and cotton shirt, buttonless, open from midriff to Adam’s apple, exposing a chest matted with a thatch of hair as white as that of his head and face.
ref: 1919 September, Jack London, “The Bones of Kahelili”, in On the Makaloa Mat, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, pages 42–43:
text: A barber shop and pool room. A man in shirt sleeves, presumably Del Snafflin the proprietor, shaving a man who had a large Adam's apple.
ref: 1920, Sinclair Lewis, Main Street: The Story of Carol Kennicott, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, →OCLC:
topics: anatomy
medicine
sciences
synonyms: Adam's morsel
apple
apple of Adam
laryngeal prominence
goozle
glosses: The lump in the throat, usually more noticeable in men than in women; the laryngeal prominence.
synonyms: crape jasmine
pinwheel flower
Nero's crown
butterfly gardenia
carnation of India
East Indian rosebay
Tabernaemontana coronaria
coffee rose
crepe gardenia
glosses: Any of species Tabernaemontana divaricata of fragrant houseplants, native to southeast Asia.
glosses: Any of hybrid species Musa × paradisiaca, of cultivated bananas.
examples: text: The fourth [name of the citron] is named of diuers Pomum Assyrium, or Citron of Assyria, and may be Englished Adams apple, after the Italian name, and among the vulgar sort of Italians Lomie, of whom it is also called Pomum Adami, or Adams apple, and that came by the opinion of the commom rude people, who thinke it to be the same Apple, of which Adam did eate in Paradise when he transgressed Gods commandement
ref: 1597, John Gerarde, The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes, London: John Norton, page 1281:
glosses: A citron (Citrus limetta, syn. of Citrus medica).