# Etymology of 'The City that Never Sleeps' **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 18, 2006, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-the-city-that-never-sleeps/380967 "2006-11-18T18:46:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![xiix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/d6d6ee/32.png) [@xiix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xiix)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2006, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-the-city-that-never-sleeps/380967/1 "2006-11-18T18:46:56Z")
How did the big apple come to be known by this moniker? When was it first used? Did the city ever attempt to market itself using the phrase? ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2006, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-the-city-that-never-sleeps/380967/2 "2006-11-18T18:57:24Z")
Barry Popik’s [Big Apple](http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/city_that_never_sleeps/) , the best site for New York names, etc, gives this as the earliest known cite: 6 September 1912, Fort Wayne (Indiana) News, pg. 9, col. 4: NEW YORK TO BE CITY OF PERPETUAL LIGHT GREATEST GAS PLANT IN THE WORLD TO BE ERECTED–WILL MAKE IT CITY THAT NEVER GROWS DARK. NEW YORK, Sept. 6.–In addition to the greatest electric lighting plant New York is now to have the greatest gas plant in the world, surpassing even that which supplies the needs of London, and as a result is soon to add to its title of the city that never sleeps that of the city that never grows dark. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2006, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-the-city-that-never-sleeps/380967/3 "2006-11-18T23:43:26Z")
An 1885 newspaper article called Ft. Worth, TX. “A city that never sleeps.” This was in reference to all-night gambling that took place. ---
**Author:** ![xiix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/d6d6ee/32.png) [@xiix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xiix)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2006, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-the-city-that-never-sleeps/380967/4 "2006-11-19T02:17:23Z")
So you’re suggesting that the phrase was orignally used in reference to Ft. Worth rather that NYC? Do you happen to have a cite for this? cheers. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2006, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-the-city-that-never-sleeps/380967/5 "2006-11-19T03:40:42Z")
[QUOTE=xiix] So you’re suggesting that the phrase was orignally used in reference to Ft. Worth rather that NYC? Do you happen to have a cite for this? cheers. [/QUOTE] I cited the 1885 Ft. Worth connection. I don’t know when the phrase was first used about New York. But I don’t mean that Ft. Worth was the origin. It said “ **A** City that Never Sleeps” not “ **The** City That Never Sleeps.” ---
**Author:** ![Lobelia\_Overhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/54ee81/32.png) [@Lobelia\_Overhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobelia_Overhill)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2006, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-the-city-that-never-sleeps/380967/6 "2006-11-19T15:27:25Z")
Hmm, I often wondered about that phrase, when I was in NYC and couldn’t sleep, I noticed the street outside my hotel went deathly quiet for a couple of hours…