apple of Sodom

Definition

A gigantic tree supposed to have grown on the site of the destroyed cities Sodom and Gomorrah (see Genesis 18–19 in the Bible), the apples of which would turn to ash and smoke once picked.

Etymology

apple + of + Sodom; compare the common assumption that the forbidden fruit of the Garden of Eden was an apple. Possibly also imitative of Hebrew תַּפּוּחַ (tapuah, “apple”) + סְדוֹם (Sdom, “Sodom”).

Example Sentences

• "We searched for the famous apple of Sodom, and found two kinds of fruit, either of which, with the help of a little poetic imagination, might pass for the fruit in question. […] The other fruit, which we observed, and which seems to me more like the apple in question, grows around Jericho. It looks very inviting, but its taste is extremely bitter and disagreeable. One of the Arabs told me it was poisonous. [François-René de] Chateaubriand, who thought this the apple of Sodom, says, "When dried it yields a blackish seed, which may be compared to ashes, and which in taste resembles bitter pepper." Whether either of these is the apple of Sodom, or whether there is any such apple, even after all that Josephus and Tacitus and others have said about it, I will not attempt to decide."
• "The late adventurous traveller, M. [Ulrich Jasper] Seetzen, who went round the Red Sea, notices the famous apple of Sodom; of which report stated that it had all the appearance of the most inviting apple; but was filled with nauseous and bitter dust only."
• "Men have tasted of the apples of Sodom, and they have found bitter ashes under an inviting and luscious surface."