A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

l’appétit vient en mangeant, appetite comes with eating; 1600–1 SHAKESPEARE Hamlet I. ii.
143 Why, she would hang on him As if increase of appetite had grown By what it fed on.

1653 URQUHART & MOTTEUX tr. Rabelais’ Gargantua i. v. Appetite comes with

eating. a 1721 M. PRIOR Dialogues of Dead (1907) 227 But as we say in France, the

Appetite comes in Eating; so in Writing You stil found more to write. 1906 W.

MAXWELL From Yalu to Port Arthur i. Appetite comes with eating. Having absorbed

Port Arthur and begun on Manchuria, Russia saw no reason why she should not have

Korea also. 1943 S. CLOETE Congo Song xxiv. The appetite came with eating. The more

he had of her, the more he wanted. wanting and having

appetite see also HUNGER is the best sauce.

An APPLE a day keeps the doctor away

1866 Notes & Queries 3rd Ser. IX. 153 A Pembrokeshire Proverb.—‘Eat an apple on

going to bed, And you’ll keep the doctor from earning his bread.’ 1913 E. M. WRIGHT

Rustic Speech xiv. Ait a happle avore gwain to bed, An’ you’ll make the doctor beg his

bread (Dev.); or as the more popular version runs: An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

2001 Times 12 Dec. 2 Have you resolved to be a well person?.. Do you eat an apple a day

to keep the doctor away? doctors; health

The APPLE never falls far from the tree

Apparently of Eastern origin, it is frequently used to assert the continuity of family
characteristics. Quot. 1839 implies return to one’s original home. Cf. 16th-cent. Ger. der Apfel
fellt nicht gerne weit vom Baume, the apple does not usually fall far from the tree.

1839 EMERSON Letter 22 Dec. (1939) II. 243 As men say the apple never falls far

from the stem, I shall hope that another year will draw your eyes and steps to this old

dear odious haunt of the race. 1939 H. W. THOMPSON Body, Boots & Britches xix. As

a.. farmer remarked, ‘If you breed a pa’tridge, you’ll git a pa’tridge.’ Another way of

setting that truth forth is,.. ‘An apple never falls far from the tree.’ 1981 Women’s

Journal Apr. 179 He’s a fool, Muffie, as his father was. The apple never falls far from the

tree. 2001 Washington Post 28 June C10 The social worker had summed up the child’s

future: ‘Don’t expect to do miracles. An apple can’t fall too far from the tree.’ family;

nature and nurture; origins