Say What? (Don't) Upset the Applecart / The Apple Never Falls Far from the Tree
Happy Monday, and welcome to the next installment of Say What?, in which we discover the origins of (Don’t) upset the applecart and The apple never falls far from the tree. With examples from Supernatural.
(Don’t) upset the applecart.
The earliest version of this saying is attributed to the Romans, who would exclaim Perii, plaustrum perculi, or “I am undone; I have upset my wagon!” In other words, the person whose wagon, or cart, was overturned (or the person who overturned the cart) had managed to spoil everything. And that’s how this expression has been used over time: it means “to cause trouble, difficulty, or upset, especially by spoiling someone’s plans.”
The apples didn’t come into play until 1788 and Jeremy Belknap’s publication of The History of New Hampshire, in which he described how John Adams nearly caused some serious trouble while forming the government of the United States:
Adams had almost overset the apple-cart by intruding an amendment of his own fabrication on the morning of the day of ratification [of the Constitution].
Since then, this saying hasn’t changed much, though it seems it might be a mostly North American saying. However, it shouldn’t pose any confusion for most English speakers, so using it to express the way plans have been wrecked in one way or another would be very appropriate:
“Okay,” said Dean. “Sam and I will sneak around and go through the back door. Jody, you and Cass- ”
Jody shrugged. “Cass is already headed for the front. We’ll have to wing it.”
“Crap,” muttered Sam. “Way to upset the applecart, buddy. I just hope you don’t get your ass kicked before we get in there.”
The apple never falls far from the tree.
This saying is thought to be of Eastern origin and means that families tend to pass down characteristics from parents to children. The German version, der Apfel fellt nicht gerne weit vom Baume, dates back to the 16th century and carries this meaning, though that wasn’t always true of the English version.
The saying’s first recorded use in English, “the apple never falls far from its stem,” comes from Ralph Waldo Emerson in a letter dated 1839, which suggests that in the English-speaking world, this is another mostly American saying. That said, Emerson used it in a different way from the Germans of the past and English-speakers of today. Instead of expressing the idea that children take after their parents, he meant that people feel a certain kind of pull back to their childhood homes.
However, about a hundred years after Emerson wrote his letter, the English saying turned into the one we best recognize today, both in wording and in meaning. If you want to use it in fanfic, it’s pretty easy:
Jody cautiously entered the ramshackle barn, where Sam and Mary stood at the center of a ring of fallen undead. Half sported deep, ugly gashes from Sam’s ax, and the others were criss-crossed with the marks of Mary’s machetes.
“Whoa,” said Jody. “I guess the apple didn’t fall far from the tree, huh? Good job, you guys.”
One or both of these sayings can be used in your stories where you're discussing thwarted plans or offspring who take after their parents, but you need to make sure that the characters who say them are the kinds of people who would use them. After all, while apples have been cultivated on Earth for many thousands of years, having the aliens from another galaxy talking about them would really upset the applecart and could well lead to many aspersions about exactly how far the apple has fallen from your etymological tree.
Thanks to grammarian chiroho for the cleverly worded conclusion to this post!
Sources:
the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree Phrases.org.uk
upset the applecart from Makingheadsortailsofidioms.com
upset the applecart from Phrases.org.uk
(Don’t) upset the applecart.
The earliest version of this saying is attributed to the Romans, who would exclaim Perii, plaustrum perculi, or “I am undone; I have upset my wagon!” In other words, the person whose wagon, or cart, was overturned (or the person who overturned the cart) had managed to spoil everything. And that’s how this expression has been used over time: it means “to cause trouble, difficulty, or upset, especially by spoiling someone’s plans.”
The apples didn’t come into play until 1788 and Jeremy Belknap’s publication of The History of New Hampshire, in which he described how John Adams nearly caused some serious trouble while forming the government of the United States:
Adams had almost overset the apple-cart by intruding an amendment of his own fabrication on the morning of the day of ratification [of the Constitution].
Since then, this saying hasn’t changed much, though it seems it might be a mostly North American saying. However, it shouldn’t pose any confusion for most English speakers, so using it to express the way plans have been wrecked in one way or another would be very appropriate:
“Okay,” said Dean. “Sam and I will sneak around and go through the back door. Jody, you and Cass- ”
Jody shrugged. “Cass is already headed for the front. We’ll have to wing it.”
“Crap,” muttered Sam. “Way to upset the applecart, buddy. I just hope you don’t get your ass kicked before we get in there.”
The apple never falls far from the tree.
This saying is thought to be of Eastern origin and means that families tend to pass down characteristics from parents to children. The German version, der Apfel fellt nicht gerne weit vom Baume, dates back to the 16th century and carries this meaning, though that wasn’t always true of the English version.
The saying’s first recorded use in English, “the apple never falls far from its stem,” comes from Ralph Waldo Emerson in a letter dated 1839, which suggests that in the English-speaking world, this is another mostly American saying. That said, Emerson used it in a different way from the Germans of the past and English-speakers of today. Instead of expressing the idea that children take after their parents, he meant that people feel a certain kind of pull back to their childhood homes.
However, about a hundred years after Emerson wrote his letter, the English saying turned into the one we best recognize today, both in wording and in meaning. If you want to use it in fanfic, it’s pretty easy:
Jody cautiously entered the ramshackle barn, where Sam and Mary stood at the center of a ring of fallen undead. Half sported deep, ugly gashes from Sam’s ax, and the others were criss-crossed with the marks of Mary’s machetes.
“Whoa,” said Jody. “I guess the apple didn’t fall far from the tree, huh? Good job, you guys.”
One or both of these sayings can be used in your stories where you're discussing thwarted plans or offspring who take after their parents, but you need to make sure that the characters who say them are the kinds of people who would use them. After all, while apples have been cultivated on Earth for many thousands of years, having the aliens from another galaxy talking about them would really upset the applecart and could well lead to many aspersions about exactly how far the apple has fallen from your etymological tree.
Thanks to grammarian chiroho for the cleverly worded conclusion to this post!
Sources:
the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree Phrases.org.uk
upset the applecart from Makingheadsortailsofidioms.com
upset the applecart from Phrases.org.uk