"American as apple pie" - clichéd quintessential American. Although the original pie is much different than what we know today, the modern pie is an American creation. Apples (and pies) were brought to America from Europe, and were both popular in Europe, but Americans popularized the apple pie as America became the world's largest apple producer.
"Apple pie order" - tidy and well-organized. It is assumed the phrase originates from the French 'nappes pliees', meaning neatly folded, or from 'cap-a-pie order'. It first appears in Pasley's Private Sea Journals (1780): "Their persons clean and in apple-pie order on Sundays."
"The Big Apple" - nickname for New York City. The nickname of "The Big Apple" for New York City was first popularized in New York Morning Telegraph articles by John J. Fitzgerald in the 1920s, referring to horse racing. The earliest reference was on May 3, 1921: "J.P. Smith, with Tippity Witchet and others of the L.T. Bauer string, is scheduled to start for "the big apple" to-morrow..." He frequently referred to "the big apple" thereafter, and finally explained the reference in 1924: "The Big Apple. The dream of every lad that ever threw a leg over a thoroughbred and the goal of all horsemen. There's only one Big Apple. That's New York." By the late 1920s, other writers were starting to refer to New York as The Big Apple out of the horse racing context. By the 1960s, The Big Apple was only known as an old nickname for the City, but in the 1970s, the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau began promoting "The Big Apple" as the City's moniker. It caught on.
"Easy as pie" - something easy. This specific phrase stems back to 19th century America, but references to pie as denoting pleasantry or ease date back decades earlier. Mark Twain frequently used "pie" to describe something pleasant or accommodating, such as in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884): "You're always as polite as pie to them." The earliest example of the exact phrase "easy as pie" is from The Newport Mercury, a Rhode Island newspaper in June 1887 in a comic story set in New York.
Shut your pie hole. Then open it again and fill it with that slice of the pie in the sky you had your thumb in
Why the heck to we say that?
"Eat humble pie" - act submissively and apologetically, especially when admitting an error. In the 14th century England, "numbles" was the name for the heart, liver, and entrails of deer. By the 15th century, it had shortened to "umbles". The umbles were common ingredients for pie fillings - thus, umble pie. The evolution to the idiomatic "humble pie" is assumed to be the result of the similar-sounding words, as well as the fact that those eating umble pie were most often of humble means.
"Have your finger in the pie" - to have a role in something, be involved.
"Have your finger in too many pies" - to be involved in too many things to be able to do them well.
"Have your finger in every pie" - to be involved in everything, usually in a way others disapprove of.
These idioms originate from the nursery rhyme of Little Jack Horner, which is believed by many to be a true (if figurative) story of the steward to Richard Whiting, the last abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, before the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII. Legend has it that, just prior to the abbey's destruction, the abbot sent Little Jack Horner to London with a Christmas pie which had the deeds to a dozen manors secretly baked inside. During the journey, Horner opened the pie and extracted the deeds of the manor of Mells in Somerset. The manor properties included lead mines in the Mendip Hills, hence "He pulled out a plum" - from the Latin plumbum, for lead:
Little Jack Horner sat in the corner,
Eating a Christmas pie,
He put in his thumb and pulled out a plum,
And said "What a good boy am I!"
"Nice as pie" - someone pleasant and friendly, especially when they weren't expected to be. The etymology of "nice as pie" is the same as "easy as pie".
"Pie in the sky" - a promise of heavenly reward while continuing to suffer in this life. This American phrase was coined by Joe Hill, a leader in the radical labor organization The Industrial Workers of the World (known as the Wobblies) in 1911. Joe wrote many radical songs supporting their cause. The phrase appeared in the chorus of Hill's The Preacher and the Slave, a parody of the Salvation Army hymn In the Sweet Bye and Bye. The song criticized the Army's theology and philosophy, particularly its focus on saving souls rather than feeding the hungry. "You will eat, bye and bye; in that glorious land above the sky; work and pray, live on hay; you'll get the pie in the sky when you die".
"Pie-eyed" - drunk. References date back to 1904, but the etymology is unclear. Many guess that the term "pie" was slang among printers to mean blurry mess, and so "pie-eyed" refers to the blurred vision of a drunk.
"Pieman" - originated in the nursery rhyme "Simple Simon", in which Simple Simon meets a pieman on the way to the fair.
"Shut your pie hole" - be quiet, stop talking. This modern slang expression is of UK origin, dating from the mid-20th century. Airman slang for a mouth was "cake hole". It was widely-used in the UK until the 1970's, and has faded out of popular use. The equivalent term "shut your pie hole" began use in America in the 1980s. It isn't clear if it derives form "cake hole" or was coined independently.
"A slice of the pie" - a portion of the money (or other bounty) shared by everyone.
"Upper crust" - many believe this expression stems from the superior, unburnt top of the bread. A minority school of thought is that peasants prepared pies with only a bottom crust, as only the wealthy had ample resources for both a bottom AND a top crust.