Motion diagram. A Deaf-recorded clip from the PopSign corpus (CC BY 4.0) exists for this sign and can be placed here.
APPLE
“apple”
Plant the knuckle of a bent index finger on your cheek and twist.
Where the sign comes from
UnknownNo reliable source. We'd rather say so than invent one.
The twisting-knuckle-on-cheek form is stable across records, but no reliable source establishes why the apple is signed at the cheek. We would rather say 'unknown' than invent a reason.
No sources — which is the point of the “unknown” tier. If you know of a documented account, the historical databases are where to check it.
The sign, taken apart
Every ASL sign is built from a handshape, a place it's made, and a movement. Learn to see these three and you can read and store any sign.
Made at the cheek.
One-handed.
Repeated. Palm facing in.
Easy to confuse with
These differ from APPLE in one or two parameters — the minimal pairs our receptive drills use to make sure you can really tell them apart.