onion

英文詞源

onion

onion: [14] The usual Old English word for ‘onion’ was cīpe (a borrowing from Latin cēpa, source also of English chives and chipolata), but it also had ynne. This came from Latin ūniō, a word of uncertain origin but possibly identical with ūniō (a derivative of ūnus ‘one’) which denoted a ‘single large pearl’ (according to Julius Moderatus Columella, ūniō was a farmer’s term, and one can well imagine a proud onion-grower comparing his products with pearls).

An alternative explanation, also based on a derivation from ūnus, is that the word is an allusion to the ‘unity’ formed by the layers of the onion. Ynne had died out by the Middle English period, and onion represents a reacquisition of the word via Anglo-Norman union.
=> one

onion (n.)

early 12c., from Anglo-French union, Old French oignon "onion" (formerly also oingnon), and directly from Latin unionem (nominative unio), colloquial rustic Roman for "a kind of onion," also "pearl" (via notion of a string of onions), literally "one, unity;" sense connection is the successive layers of an onion, in contrast with garlic or cloves.

Old English had ynne (in ynne-leac), from the same Latin source, which also produced Irish inniun, Welsh wynwyn and similar words in Germanic. In Dutch, the ending in -n was mistaken for a plural inflection and new singular ui formed. The usual Indo-European name is represented by Greek kromion, Irish crem, Welsh craf, Old English hramsa, Lithuanian kremuse.

The usual Latin word was cepa, a loan from an unknown language; it is the source of Old French cive, Old English cipe, and, via Late Latin diminutive cepulla, Italian cipolla, Spanish cebolla, Polish cebula. German Zwiebel also is from this source, but altered by folk etymology in Old High German (zwibolla) from words for "two" and "ball." Onion ring is attested from 1952.

Onion dome attested from 1956; onion grass from 1883; onion skin as a type of paper from 1892. Onions, the surname, is attested from mid-12c. (Ennian), from Old Welsh Enniaun, ultimately from Latin Annianus, which was associated with Welsh einion "anvil."