Logo
dictionary thesaurus

Adam's apple

noun

Definition of Adam's apple

: the projection in the front of the neck formed by the largest cartilage of the larynx

First Known Use of Adam's apple

1625, in the meaning defined above

History and Etymology for Adam's apple

after adam entry 1

Note: There are analogous names in other European languages, e.g., French pomme d'Adam, morceau d'Adam, Italian pomo d'Adamo, German Adamsapfel, etc. Medieval authors, as Jacques de Vitry, applied pomum Adam(i), Adami pomum, etc., to various kinds of fruits, as the pomegranate, perhaps originally from their supposed superior quality (i.e., "fruits of Paradise"). According to Elmar Seebold (Kluge, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprachen, 24. Auflage, 2002), medieval Arab medical authors called the laryngeal protuberance the "pomegranate"—pomum granatum in Latin translation—and the synonymous pomum Adami may have been copied in European vernaculars as a name for the laryngeal protuberance (a case of sense borrowing, and then sense transfer to a synonym). Caspar Bauhin, in his anatomical work De corporis humani fabrica libri quattuor (Basel, 1590), notes that both "pomegranate" and "Adam's apple" are vernacular words for the larynx ("…partem protuberantem, que malum granatum et pomum Adami barbaris dicitur constituit."). Other anatomical authors also have pomum Adami as the Latinization of a vernacular name (André de Laurens, Historia anatomica [Lyons, 1605]: "Huius suprema pars brónkhos, quibusdam vulgo morsus & pomum Adami appellatur"; Gabriele Falloppio, "Institutiones Anatomicae," in Omnia, quae adhuc extant opera [Venice, 1584]: "…quam prominentiam aliqui vulgares appellant, Adami pomum"). This expression has not surprisingly been subject to folk explanations, e.g., John Purcell, in A Treatise of Vapours, or Hysterick Fits (2nd ed., London, 1707), says "…an eminence or protuberance plain to be felt and seen in the neck, which several anatomists call Pomum Adami or, the Apple of Adam, from a vulgar superstitious notion that when Adam eat the forbidden Apple it stuck in his Throat, and that God to perpetuate the memory of this his offence plac'd the like protuberance in the throats of all his posterity; which is not quite so apparent in Women, because, say they, the Crime of Eve was less…." The notion, which according to Seebold goes back to the 19th century, that pomum Adami is a translation of a putative Medieval Hebrew tappūăḥ ha'ādhām (alleged to mean "protuberance on a man," supposedly reinterpreted as "Adam's apple") is specious. No such expression with this meaning has been located in pre-Modern Hebrew.

Keep scrolling for more

Keep scrolling for more

More Definitions for Adam's apple

Adam's apple

noun

English Language Learners Definition of Adam's apple

: the lump that sticks out in the front of a person's neck, that is usually larger in men than in women, and that moves when a person talks or swallows

See the full definition for Adam's apple in the English Language Learners Dictionary

Adam's apple

noun
Ad·​am's apple | \ ˈa-dəmz-\

Kids Definition of Adam's apple

: the lump formed in the front of a person's neck by cartilage in the throat

Adam's apple

noun
Ad·​am's ap·​ple | \ ˌad-əm-ˈzap-əl How to pronounce Adam's apple (audio) \

Medical Definition of Adam's apple

: the projection in the front of the neck that is formed by the thyroid cartilage and is particularly prominent in males

Keep scrolling for more

WORD OF THE DAY

emancipation

play

See Definitions and Examples

Get Word of the Day daily email!