onion

• onyon (obsolete)

From Middle English onyoun, oynoun, from Old French oignon, from Latin ūniōnem, accusative of ūniō (“onion, large pearl”), 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.

• IPA^(key): /ˈʌn.jən/

• Audio (UK):

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• Audio (US):

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• (Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈʌŋ.jɪn/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈʌŋ.jən/, /ˈʌn.jən/
• (India, spelling pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɒnɪ.jən/
• (dialectal, obsolete) IPA^(key): /ˈɪŋ.ən/, /ˈɪn.jən/^[1][2]
• Rhymes: -ʌnjən

onion (plural onions)

2. A monocotyledonous plant (Allium cepa), allied to garlic, used as vegetable and spice.
   • 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.
   • 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^[2]:

     Goulash, a local favorite, was brought up-to-date with seared grass-fed rib-eye, stewed cippolini onions and roasted cherry tomatoes.

5. A plant of the genus Allium as a whole. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
6. (slang, of a drug) An ounce.
7. (obsolete baseball slang) A ball.
8. (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. […]

9. Alternative letter-case form of Onion (“an inhabitant of Bermuda; a Bermudian”)
10. (4chan, slang) Soy, particularly when used in compound words related to the soy boy stereotype.

• (vegetable): violet (UK dialect)

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

• chive
• scallion
• shallot

onion m (singulative onionyn)

1. Alternative form of wynwyn (“onions”)

• 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