apple of Sodom

Meaning

Noun

• 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.
• The fruit of the mythical tree.

Origin

• 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 + סְדוֹם.