APPLE KNOCKER

PRONUNCIATION: (AP-uhl nok-uhr)

MEANING: noun: 1. An ignorant or unsophisticated person.
2. A baseball player, especially a batter.
3. A fruit picker, farmer, or seller.

ETYMOLOGY: 1. From the stereotypical view of those working in the field as boorish or naive.
2. From the jocular reference to a baseball as an apple.
3. From the image of someone picking apples by knocking them down with a stick.
Earliest documented use: 1902.

NOTES: In the term apple knocker, a baseball has been compared to an apple. In the past, those balls were even made in red color. And a ballpark is also called an apple orchard probably because that’s where the game was often played. So it figures that a batter is an apple knocker. Baseball players will continue knocking the apple with a bat, but fruit picking is going high-tech. Here in Washington state, we grow apples and many other fruits and a robotics arm race is going on to develop automated fruit pickers. In the future, we may need to amend the definition of the term apple knocker. Instead, an apple knocker may be someone working with drones and robots.
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APPLY KNOCKER - this is the way to announce yourself if you want the position

A POLE KNOCKER - Przybylsky here, let me in!

APPLE KNACKER - person who disposes of dead horses