Shallots

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A mild-flavored, small bulb belonging to the onion family, often used in cooking to enhance various dishes with its subtle sweetness and nuanced taste
2. A small, edible bulb from a plant species related to onions, used in culinary dishes to add a delicate, slightly sweet flavor
3. A type of vegetable bulb that has a mild taste and is commonly utilized to season or complement meals

Etymology: "Shallots" is the plural of "shallot," a small, mild onion-like bulb whose name points back to a city in the eastern Mediterranean. The Latin "ascalonia (cēpa)" meant "onion of Ashkelon," Ashkelon being an ancient port in what is now Israel. Medieval Latin shortened it to "escalonia," and Old French reshaped it into "eschaloigne," a form that Middle French later altered to "eschalote" before it reached modern French as "échalote." English borrowed the word from French, so the vegetable traveled from a Levantine port through Latin and French before arriving in English. Its close cousin is "scallion," a doublet, meaning the two words come from the same source but entered English by different routes, which explains why they now name similar plants with different spellings and sounds.

Synonyms: scallions, green onions, spring onions