A variant spelling of shallot, a small bulbous plant related to onions that has a milder, more delicate flavor and is commonly used in cooking.
From French échalote, which derives from the Hebrew word Ascalon, an ancient Palestinian city famous for producing and exporting these bulbs. The word traveled through Old French and Medieval Latin before entering English with various phonetic spellings.
The word 'shallot' literally carries the name of an ancient city—Ascalon was so renowned for these bulbs thousands of years ago that people called the plant by its hometown! This is why you find multiple spellings of the word across different languages and time periods.
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