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onion

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: .onion and Onion

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
onions (sense 1) growing in a farm field
onions (sense 2) ready for the kitchen
a sliced onion
onions in scallion form
onion crop in flower
flowering onion, with a bee

Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English onyoun, oynoun, from Old French oignon, from Latin ūniōnem, accusative of ūniō (“onion”), which had also been borrowed into Old English as yne, ynnelēac (“onion”) (> Middle English hynne-leac, henne-leac). Also displaced Middle English knelek (literally “knee-leek”) and the inherited term ramsons.

  • (soy): Stems from a 4chan word filter which changes the word soy to onions. The word filter was implemented in relation to the "alpha onion eater" meme, which is depicted as the direct opposite of the soy boy.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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onion (plural onions)

  2. A monocotyledonous plant (Allium cepa), allied to garlic, used as vegetable and spice.
    Coordinate terms: wild onion, spring onion (Welsh onion sense)
    • 1944, Oregon. Agricultural experiment station, Circular of Information - Issues 323-395, page 3:
      Some of the weeds that cause an undesirable flavor in milk are: onion, tarweed, scaleweed, garlic, mustard, pepper grass.
    • 2021, Rose Ray, Caro Langton, Into Green: Everyday Ways to Find and Lose Yourself in Nature, page 62:
      To get started, how about creating an edible window box? Sowed in the spring, salad seeds like radish, lettuce and spring onion will germinate so quickly that you'll be harvesting a crop in a month or two.
  4. The bulb of such a plant.
    My eyes are stinging from the chopped onions.
    • 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 158:
      Among the ancient Greeks, onions are most frequently mentioned as a stimulus to sexual desire.
    • 1962 (quoting 1381 text), Hans Kurath & Sherman M. Kuhn, eds., Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, ISBN 978-0-472-01044-8, page 1242:
      dorrẹ̅, dōrī adj. & n. […] cook. glazed with a yellow substance; pome(s ~, sopes ~. […] 1381 Pegge Cook. Recipes p. 114: For to make Soupys dorry. Nym onyons […] Nym wyn […] toste wyte bred and do yt in dischis, and god Almande mylk.
    • 2015 September 4, “In Minnesota’s Iron Range, Midwestern With a Modern Twist”, in The New York Times‎[3]:
      Goulash, a local favorite, was brought up-to-date with seared grass-fed rib-eye, stewed cippolini onions and roasted cherry tomatoes.
  6. Any of various plants, mostly of the genus Allium, that are more or less similar to Allium cepa.
    Hyponyms: spring onion, wild onion
    Many onions are delicious; domesticated onions such as Allium cepa and Allium fistulosum are especially good, but even wild onions such as Allium canadense and Allium validum are nice in small doses.
  7. (slang, of a drug) An ounce.
  8. (obsolete baseball slang) A ball.
  9. (obsolete, slang) A watch-seal.
    • 1846, George William MacArthur Reynolds, The Mysteries of London, page 60:
      […] M was a Magsman, frequenting Pall-Mall; / N was a Nose that turned chirp on his pal; / O was an Onion, possessed by a swell; / P was a Pannie, done niblike and well. […]
  10. Alternative letter-case form of Onion (“an inhabitant of Bermuda; a Bermudian”).
  11. (4chan slang, slang) Soy, particularly when used in compound words related to the soy boy stereotype.

Synonyms

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  • (vegetable): violet (UK dialect)

Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • Bislama: anian
  • Tok Pisin: anian
  • → Maori: aniana

Translations

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Bingham, Caleb (1808), “Improprieties in Pronunciation, common among the people of New-England”, in The Child's Companion; Being a Conciſe Spelling-book […] ‎[1], 12th edition, Boston: Manning & Loring, →OCLC, page 75.
  2. ^ Hurd, Seth P. (1847), “Onion”, in “False Pronunciation”, in A Grammatical Corrector; or, A Vocabulary of the Common Errors of Speech‎[2], Philadelphia: E. H. Butler & Co, →OCLC, page 86.
  3. ^ Stanley, Oma (1937), “I. Vowel Sounds in Stressed Syllables”, in The Speech of East Texas (American Speech: Reprints and Monographs; 2), New York: Columbia University Press, →DOI, →ISBN, § 12, page 27.

Welsh

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Noun

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onion m (singulative onionyn)

  1. alternative form of wynwyn (“onions”)

Mutation

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Mutated forms of onion
radical soft nasal h-prothesis
onion unchanged unchanged honion

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

References

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  • R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “wynwyn, wnion, winion, winiwn, &c.”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies
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