You are the apple of my eye

Meaning

Originally meaning the central aperture of the eye. Figuratively it is something, or more usually someone, cherished above others.

Origin

'The apple of my eye' is exceedingly old and first appears in Old English in a work attributed to King Aelfred (the Great) of Wessex, AD 885, entitled Gregory's Pastoral Care.

Shakespeare used the phrase in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 1600:

Flower of this purple dye,
Hit with Cupid’s archery,
Sink in apple of his eye

The phrase was known from those early sources but became more widely used in the general population when Sir Walter Scott included it in the popular novel Old Mortality, 1816:

"Poor Richard was to me as an eldest son, the apple of my eye."