A genus of bulbous plants including onions; or used scientifically to refer to an onion, especially in botanical or medicinal contexts.
From Latin cepa, the Roman word for onion, possibly borrowed from a Semitic language. The scientific name Allium cepa for the common onion preserves this ancient Latin terminology.
The Latin word cepa for onion is so old that it traveled into almost every European language—Spanish cebolla, Italian cipolla, French oignon (from cepa+onion), showing how the Romans' onion obsession literally shaped how we name vegetables!
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