Apple and oranges saying

Apple and oranges saying

An unresolvable and ultimately useless comparison.

A comparison which is just as easy to support as it is to contest.

Something which is both the same and different simultaneously depending on your point of view.

alt. *Apples to Apples*—Though not the initial meaning, occasionally the phrase «apples to oranges» is used to dismiss a «distinct difference» noted between two things which are not distinctly different. IE the neverending opinion wars often attributed to brand-loyalty. These are based on imaginary chasms of vast differences which cannot be proven or conclusively settled. IN other words these things are not really very different, but people desperately want to believe they are.

When someone says «you’re comparing apples to oranges» they’re really saying «Why are you trying to compare those things? You can’t compare apples to oranges, they’re just not the same thing.»

They’re both sweet. They’re both fruit. They’re both the same. But they’re not. One’s an apple, and one’s an orange. Is that all there is to it? One tastes better. No it doesn’t. Yes it does. How do you decide which one everyone likes more? How *can* you decide?

A great example of silly apples to oranges is vanilla and chocolate.

Invalid apples to oranges comparisons would be like comparing Bush or Clinton to Lincoln, Jefferson, or Washington. You can’t, so don’t.

Examples of useless «nonexistant-vast-differences» apples to oranges comparisons are Macs and PC’s, Fords and Chevys, Nikons and Canons.. In reality this is mostly «apples to apples» comparison.

Apples to oranges usually ends with each person believing or feeling whatever they do and leaving it at that. That’s all there is to it. Neither can really ever be better or worse, and nobody can win the argument.

In the end, the whole point of making the comparison is to illustrate: there is really no point in making the comparison.

Источник

Apple and oranges saying

An unresolvable and ultimately useless comparison.

A comparison which is just as easy to support as it is to contest.

Something which is both the same and different simultaneously depending on your point of view.

alt. *Apples to Apples*—Though not the initial meaning, occasionally the phrase «apples to oranges» is used to dismiss a «distinct difference» noted between two things which are not distinctly different. IE the neverending opinion wars often attributed to brand-loyalty. These are based on imaginary chasms of vast differences which cannot be proven or conclusively settled. IN other words these things are not really very different, but people desperately want to believe they are.

When someone says «you’re comparing apples to oranges» they’re really saying «Why are you trying to compare those things? You can’t compare apples to oranges, they’re just not the same thing.»

They’re both sweet. They’re both fruit. They’re both the same. But they’re not. One’s an apple, and one’s an orange. Is that all there is to it? One tastes better. No it doesn’t. Yes it does. How do you decide which one everyone likes more? How *can* you decide?

A great example of silly apples to oranges is vanilla and chocolate.

Invalid apples to oranges comparisons would be like comparing Bush or Clinton to Lincoln, Jefferson, or Washington. You can’t, so don’t.

Examples of useless «nonexistant-vast-differences» apples to oranges comparisons are Macs and PC’s, Fords and Chevys, Nikons and Canons.. In reality this is mostly «apples to apples» comparison.

Apples to oranges usually ends with each person believing or feeling whatever they do and leaving it at that. That’s all there is to it. Neither can really ever be better or worse, and nobody can win the argument.

In the end, the whole point of making the comparison is to illustrate: there is really no point in making the comparison.

Источник

Word story – compare apples and oranges

Compare apples and oranges (idiom) – used to say that two things are completely different and it is not sensible to compare them.
Definition – Cambridge Dictionary

Употребление идиомы compare apples and oranges

Идиома compare apples and oranges используется, когда сравнивают два предмета или две группы предметов, которые являются не сопоставимыми и между которыми сложно провести сходство. Хотя яблоки и апельсины являются фруктами, внешний вид, цвет, вкус и запах этих фруктов абсолютно разные.

Происхождение идиомы compare apples and oranges

Фраза compare apples and oranges вошла в употребление в 1800-х годах, но популярность приобрела во второй половине двадцатого века. Идиома произошла от другой, более старой фразы, в которой сравниваются яблоки и устрицы. Именно эту фразу можно найти в комедии Шекспира «Укрощении строптивой» Шекспира: ‘As much as an apple doth an oyster, and all one.’

Английская идиома compare apples and oranges, в которой сравнивается несравнимое, не является уникальной. В других языках существуют подобные идиомы, только набор элементов для сравнения в них другой. Французы, датчане, голландцы, немцы, шведы, испанцы и итальянцы, например, сравнивают яблоки с грушами (comparer des pommes et des poires), французы еще сравнивают капусту с морковью (comparer des choux et des carottes), португальцы — апельсины с бананами (comparar laranjas com bananas), а жители Латинской Америки — яблоки со сладким картофелем (comparar papas y boniatos).

Существуют несколько вариантов идиомы: compare apples and oranges, compare apples with oranges, compare apples to oranges, to mix apples and oranges, sth is apples and oranges

Варианты перевода фразы compare apples and oranges

Примеры употребления фразы compare apples and oranges

Now, you might be thinking, “You’re comparing apples and oranges!”
The Federalist, August 7, 2019

But Arthur Schwartz, who represents the block associations and is himself a 12th Street resident, told the Post that the agencies and advocates are comparing apples and oranges.
The New York Post, August 5, 2019

If you’re using a score to monitor your credit, it’s important to use the same kind from the same bureau – otherwise you’re comparing apples and oranges, as we say in English.
The Los Angeles Times, August 1, 2019

Wingert said that while it is true that the same power bank at the Chehalis Substation was involved in both outages, it would be similar to comparing apples and oranges.
The Daily Chronicle, August 2, 2019

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Origin of «Comparing apples and oranges»

What is the origin of the idiom «comparing apples and oranges,» as in,

You can’t compare those things! That’s like comparing apples and oranges.

EDIT: I can find a book from 1889 making the comparison.

Update: 30/03/2017
It appears that the link cited above is broken.

2 Answers 2

The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms (1997) offers this derivation of «apples and oranges»:

This metaphor for dissimilarity began as apples and oysters, which appeared in John Ray’s proverb collection of 1670. It is nearly always accompanied by a warning that on cannot compare such different categories.

In Ray’s book, it appears in the section called «Proverbial Similes» and consists of the simple phrase «As like as an apple to an oyster.»

The Wordsworth Dictionary of Proverbs (2006) offers this series of early quotations:

1532: More, Works, 724 (1557), No more lyke then an apple to an oyster. 1565: Calfhill, Answer to Martiall, 99 (P.S.), Which have learned to make quidlibet ex quodlibet: an apple of an oyster. 1594: Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew, IV ii [Tranio: He is my father, sir, and sooth to say, In count’nance somewhat doth resemble you. Biondello: (aside) As much as an apple doth an oyster, and all one.] 1667: L’Estrange, Quevedo’s Visions, 34 (1904), You are no more like . than an apple’s like an oyster.

Surprisingly, one of the earliest instances that I found of “comparing apples and oranges” is dated 1944, in a copy of Broadcasting. The Weekly Newsmagazine of Radio (Jul-Dec 1944), which is far more recent than I had anticipated.

It is not possible to compare apples and oranges. But it is possible to compare apples and oranges in terms of some specific attribute — to say that apples deliver twice as many calories per dollar or that oranges deliver twice as many vitamin C units per dollar.

This excerpt suggests that in its infancy the expression was commonly used in its more literal rather than figurative sense. After all, the United States is one of the world’s top producers of apples and oranges, while the same cannot be said of the United Kingdom, whose variable climate is unfavourable for growing oranges. Is this citation the first idiomatic use seen in print?

The earliest instance I found on Google Books that matched “comparing apples to oranges” is dated 1952, in the Investigation of Wage Stabilization Board. Hearings. 82-2 held in a House of Representatives committee. In the first instance, a speaker says oranges to apples, but when a Mr Beirne replies that specific order is reversed.

Now, you are not doing what you have accused Mr. Wilson of doing, comparing oranges to apples? In that case, in other words, is it not true that the steel industry has peculiar problems for Saturday and Sunday work as such.
Mr. Beirne. No, I do not think that we are comparing apples to oranges because in my presentation to the Board on this issue I used and the exhibit which I will submit to this committee later will be for companies which are engaged in what is called 7-day .

I did find a 1939 citation involving a «Mr Henderson» and «Mr Duhig», but when I searched for their names, only two references dated 1944 and 1969 surfaced, which lead me to surmise that the earlier date cited by Google, could be inaccurate.

Wikipedia dedicates a page to this idiom, and says:

The idiom is not unique to English. In Quebec French, it may take the form comparer des pommes avec des oranges (to compare apples and oranges), while in European French the idiom says comparer des pommes et des poires (to compare apples and pears).

In Latin American Spanish, it is usually comparar papas y boniatos (comparing potatoes and sweet potatoes) or commonly for all varieties of Spanish comparar peras con manzanas (comparing pears and apples).

Fruit other than apples and oranges can also be compared; for example, apples and pears are compared in Danish, Dutch, German, Spanish, Swedish, Croatian, Czech, Romanian, Hungarian, Italian, Slovene, Luxembourgish, Serbian, and Turkish. In fact, in the Spanish-speaking world, a common idiom is sumar peras con manzanas, that is, to add pears and apples; the same thing applies in Italian and Romanian, where popular idioms are respectively sommare le mele con le pere and a aduna merele cu perele.

In Portuguese, the expression is comparar laranjas com bananas or «compare orange to banana». In Czech, the idiom míchat jablka s hruškami literally means to mix apples and pears.

The article adds that idioms comparing two different fruits, or foods, is not unique to the English language. If you search for the definition and origin of–apples and oranges–you’ll find it is North American, it is also cited in The Dictionary of American Slang. Its history can be traced back to 1557: No more lyke then an apple to an oyster, but that does not mean the Middle English simile, cited in Sven Yargs’ answer, was the progenitor for the rest of Europe.

Although the orange fruit was introduced in Sicily as long ago as the 9th century, today the Italian proverb compares apples and pears; e.g. non sommare le mele con le pere, “don’t add apples with pears”, and non confondere [le] pere con le mele “don’t confuse/mix pears with apples”, as does the Spanish, sumar peras con manzanas.

«Proverbs that warn against combining incomparables abound in all cultures: “comparing apples and oranges,” “comparer des pommes et des poires,” “sumar peras con manzanas.” “comparing grandmothers and toads” (Serbian), .

Source Majority Judgment: Measuring, Ranking, and Electing

Источник

Pink Floyd -Apples and Oranges. Яблоки и апельсины

Александр Булынко
ЯБЛОКИ И АПЕЛЬСИНЫ

Перевод (с долей адаптации) песни
«Apples and Oranges» группы Pink Floyd

В её кармане пачка модных сигарет.
Хорошо казаться модной,
Шопинг в обуви свободной,
Променаж по магазинам, в солнцепёк, невозмутимо.
Мясники и хлебопёки ждут к прилавкам магазинов.
Заполучит, что захочет с тех прилавков магазинов.
Яблоки и апельсины.
Яблоки и апельсины.

Всё скупает подчистую – как не «закадрить» такую,
Прямо здесь и принародно
Объяснить, коли свободна,
А затем…
Я раздел её глазами. Дальше – стоп! Гадайте сами…
Что смешного? Радужная, пардон, картина…
Яблоки и апельсины
Яблоки и апельсины

Я люблю ее.
Она любит меня.
– До встречи. Пока!
– До встречи. Пока!

А когда ей объяснил я,
То, что я простой водила,
Побежала что есть силы
К берегам реки,
Чтобы на закате дня…
Уток покормить.
(Кря-кря)

Яблоки и апельсины
Яблоки и апельсины
Яблоки и апельсины

1 сентября 2011
Цикл «Антология классического рока.
Весь Пинк Флойд». Синглы
====================

Pink Floyd
APPLES AND ORANGES
(Syd Barrett)

Got a flip-top pack of cigarettes in her pocket
Feeling good at the top
Shopping in sharp shoes
Walking in the sunshine town feeling very cool
But the butchers and the bakers in the supermarket stores
Getting everything she wants from the supermarket stores
Apples and oranges
Apples and oranges

Cornering neatly she trips up sweetly
To meet the people
She’s on time again
And then
I catch her by the eye then I stop and have to think
What a funny thing to do ’cause I’m feeling very pink
Apples and oranges
Apples and oranges

I love she
She loves me
See you
See you

Thought you might to know
I’m the lorry driver man
She’s on the run
Down by the river side
feeding ducks
by the afternoon tide
(quack quack)

Apples and oranges
Apples and oranges
Apples and oranges

Singles «Apples and Oranges» / «Paint Box» (18.11.1967)
============================

«Apples And Oranges», вышедшая на третьем сингле, представляет собой короткий, не лишенный юмора рассказ. В периоды, когда группа не была в туре и не записывалась, любимым времяпровождением Сида было хождение по магазинам. Во время одного из таких походов в центр города его внимание привлекла молодая женщина, за которой он решил последовать. Слова песни представляют собой простое описание этого путешествия, закончившееся на пруду у Барнз Коммон, где женщина кормила уток.
К сожалению, песня была подпорчена плохой игрой музыкантов, чьи инструменты даже не были как следует настроены. Группа не хотела выпускать эту вещь, однако на этом настояло руководство EMI, по мнению которого остальной материал еще менее подходил для сингла.

Из книги «Pink Floyd: Архитекторы звука»
http://pink-floyd.ru/articles/books/arhitektor/
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Цикл «Антология классического рока.
Весь Пинк Флойд». Синглы

Источник