French culinary expression: FALL INTO THE APPLES
Until recently, linguists proposed to see the origin of the expression in the old formula "to fall into the pâmes" where the word "pâmes" (synonym of "pâmoison", fainting), having ceased to be understood , would have been absurdly converted, in popular language, into "apples".
Unconvincing, we retort today, because the verb "swoon" disappeared from the 15th century and, even if you look closely, no evidence of “being or fainting” was found. On the other hand, when the expression was born, at the end of the 19th century, formulas were circulating such as "to be in the baked apples" to be in a critical situation, in a state of exhaustion, and "to throw baked apples to someone", common practice in the theater on actors judged too bad, meant "booing, disapproving a person in public".
A small logical leap (whose springs remain mysterious to us, but which one can suppose favored by the memory of “swooning”) and here we are collapsing from weakness into real apples!
