# Onion

An onion (Allium cepa L., from Latin cepa meaning "onion"), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion which was classified as a separate species until 2011. The onion's close relatives include garlic, scallion, leek, and chives.

## Quotes

* We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick: But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes.
** Numbers 11:5–6 (KJV)
* Among us there are two principal varieties known of the onion; the scallion, employed for seasonings, is one, known to the Greeks by the name of gethyon, and by us as the pallacana; it is sown in March, April, and May. The other kind is the bulbed or headed onion; it is sown just after the autumnal equinox, or else after the west winds have begun to prevail. The varieties of this last kind, ranged according to their relative degrees of pungency, are the African onion, the Gallic, the Tusculan, the Ascalonian, and the Amiternian: the roundest in shape are the best. The red onion, too, is more pungent than the white, the stored than the fresh, the raw than the cooked, and the dried than the preserved.
** Pliny the Elder, Natural History, bk. 19, ch. 32
** John Bostock; H. T. Riley, The Natural History of Pliny, vol. 4 (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1856), p. 172
* Orrum et caepe nefas violare et frangere morsu; o sanctas gentes quibus haec nascuntur in hortis numina!
** It is an impious act to violate or break with the teeth a leek or an onion. O holy nations! whose gods grow for them in their gardens!
** Juvenal, Satire 15, 9–11. Cp. Pliny, op cit., "Garlic and onions are invoked by the Egyptians, when taking an oath, in the number of their deities."
** Lewis Evans; William Gifford, The Satires of Juvenal, Persius, Sulpicia, and Lucilius (New York: Harper & Bros., 1881)
* Wel loved he garleek, oynons, and eek lekes.
** Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, General Prologue, 634 (ed. Skeat)
* And, most dear actors, eat no onions nor garlick, for we are to utter sweet breath.
** Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, act 4, sc. 2 (Bottom)
* And if the boy have not a woman’s gift To rain a shower of commanded tears, An onion will do well for such a shift, Which, in a napkin being close convey’d, Shall in despite enforce a watery eye.
** Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, induction, sc. 1 (Lord)
* Mine eyes smell onions; I shall weep anon.
** Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well, act 5, sc. 3 (Lafaw)
* The tears live in an onion that should water this sorrow.
** Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, act 1, sc. 2 (Enobarbus)
* Look, they weep, And I, an ass, am onion-eyed.
** Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, act 4, sc. 2 (Enobarbus)
* Whoever has tasted onions in Egypt must allow that none can be had better in any other part of the universe: here they are sweet; in other countries they are nauseous and strong. They eat them roasted, cut into four pieces, with some bits of roasted meat which the Turks in Egypt call kebab; and with this dish they are so delighted that I have heard them wish they might enjoy it in Paradise. They likewise make a soup of them.
** Fredrik Hasselqvist, Iter Palæstinum, Eller Resa til Heliga Landet, Förrättad Ifrån år 1749 til 1752 (1757)
** Voyages and Travels in the Levant, in the Years 1749, 50, 51, 52 (London, 1766), p. 290
* Shrek: Ogres are like onions! Donkey: They stink? Shrek: No! Donkey: Oh, they make you cry? Shrek: No! Donkey: Oh, you leave 'em out in the sun and they start turnin' brown and start sproutin' little white hairs... Shrek: No! Layers! Onions have layers. Ogres have layers...
** Shrek (2001 film)

## External links

* Encyclopedic article on Onion on Wikipedia