The Hindu Business Line : Endless tale of the essential onion

A FEW days ago, members of Rapid Action Battalion stood near onion shops in Bangladesh, in response to public outcry at the spiralling cost of the vegetable. Traders should have shed tears, because they were forced to accept a price "seven taka less than their buying rate" for every kilogram.

Closer home, a rapid action by the Cabinet has eased onion out of the EC (essential commodity) list, to thank the Maharashtra electorate, though a decision on a Chief Minister for the State seems to take longer, understandably because there are more layers to peel in the politics of coalition.

The onion has always been an essential inmate in most kitchens, and so most housewives may never come to terms with the recent declaration that it is not `essential' any longer. You may have to remind them that half a decade ago, it was again election result that was responsible for conferring the `essential' status to onions, when soaring prices cost a party dearly.

Onion is "an edible bulb used as a vegetable," explains Concise Oxford English Dictionary. That it has a pungent taste and smell, and is composed of several concentric layers, is common knowledge.

`Bulb', for starters, is "a rounded underground storage organ present in lilies and some other plants," and also "an expanded or rounded part at the end of something," though it is used often as a short form of `light bulb'. Bulb, queerly, has an interesting origin; it means onion.

"From Latin bulbus, `bulb, onion,' from Greek bolbos, `plant with round swelling on underground stem.' Expanded by 1800 to `swelling in a glass tube'," reads an entry in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Apple and eye go together, to show affection. What if onion took apple's place? Domitius Enobarbus does that in Antony and Cleopatra when talking to Mark Antony: "What mean you, sir, to give them this discomfort? Look, they weep; and I, an ass, am onion-eyed: for shame, transform us not to women."

Elsewhere, Domitius would say: "Indeed the tears live in an onion." Onion connection comes up in All's Well That Ends Well, where Lafeu declares: "Mine eyes smell onions; I shall weep anon... lend me a handkercher." I guess the Bard didn't like onions much: "Most dear actors, eat no onions nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath," he wrote in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Those were days before mouth freshener sprays.

According to legend, King Ramses IV, who died in 1160 BC, was entombed with onions in his eye sockets, as per info that the National Onion Association of the US posts. It also makes a mention of India's medical treatise Charaka Samhita of the sixth century BC prescribing onion as a diuretic.

"The Greeks used onions to fortify athletes for the Olympics. Before competition, athletes would consume pounds of onions, drink onion juice and rub onions on their bodies."

On the origin of onion, Encarta reads: "12th century. From Latin unio `onion,' of uncertain origin: perhaps directly or via unio `pearl' (from the colour and shape), from unus `one' (from the `unity formed by the layers)." When, therefore, trade unions bring company managements to tears, it could be the historical link at play!

The word union, in turn, is "directly or via French from the Latin stem union, `oneness,' from unus `one.' Ultimately, from an Indo-European word meaning `one,' the ancestor of English one, any, inch, and ounce." Inch, is from Latin uncial, meaning `one twelfth,' from unus `one'.

And one is "ultimately from an Indo-European word that is also the ancestor of English union." As you peel the links further in www.etymonline.com, you learn that there are many unus-related words — such as communion, unanimous, null, universe, unique and so on.

It would be amusing to know that Chicago is from Canadian French form of Algonquian word meaning `place of the onion,' or `place of the bad smell.' And the word acrylic means `of or containing acryl,' a substance derived from garlic and onion, "from acrolein, from Latin acer `sharp' (see acrid) + olere `to smell'."

Pleasantly, smell is what earned a Nobel Prize this year. Ammonia, the pungent colourless gas, may seem to have `onion' in it, but I learn that it is from "Greek Ammôn `Ammon,' an Egyptian god."

There are more `onians' and `onias' than you can handle, if you were to count everything from Macedonia to pneumonia, and from draconian to Smithsonian. Reverting to onion, Russia has onion domes, with bulge in the middle and rising to a point. Onionskin is `a very fine translucent paper'; in bureaucracy, what may work better is buffalo skin.

Onion is among the hardiest and oldest garden-vegetable plants, with the name Allium cepa, of the lily family, explains www.britannica.com. Pungency is because "they contain a sulphur-rich volatile oil;" onion is popular not for `standard nutrients' but `flavour'.

There are claims that onions cures "colds, earaches, and laryngitis" as also "animal bites, powder burns, and warts"; there is no end to onion being studied "for other suspected beneficial qualities." Onion is mentioned in the Bible book of Exodus as part of the Egyptian diet of that time, informs Wikipedia. "We remember the free fish we ate in Egypt, along with the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic." (Numbers 11:5)

If onion makes you weep, Howstuffworks.com talks of an antidote: "If you hold a lemon, piece of bread or a sugar cube in your mouth, the food will absorb the gas before it reaches your eyes." Then, breathe with your mouth, sucking the onion gas in. "This keeps a lot of the gas from ever reaching your eyes."

This may not, however, wipe out the worries of politicians who may rue one day their onion policies. The Onion is a parody newspaper and Web site, with `T. Herman Zweibel' as the fictional editor; he has `held the position since 1901' and `is rather insane'. Glass Onion is a Beatles song, as music buffs would remember.

To know one's onions is to know one's subject or job well. Catch up with a few quotes on the subject, on www.onions-usa.org. "I will not move my army without onions!" is credited to Ulysses S. Grant, while "It's hard to imagine civilisation without onions," is a Julia Child quote.

How would you make "even heirs and widows weep"? Benjamin Franklin's answer is `onions'. A poem by Jonathon Swift gives a culinary tip: "For this is every cook's opinion, No savoury dish without an onion; But lest your kissing should be spoiled, Your onions should be thoroughly boiled."

According to Nathaniel Hawthorne, "A woman's chastity consists, like an onion, of a series of coats." Life is an onion and one peels it crying, is a French proverb. For James Gibbons Huneker too, "Life is like an onion," and he adds, "you peel off layer after layer and then you find there is nothing in it."

A quote of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen is: "Emperor? You old fake! You're no Emperor. You're just an onion. Now then, little Peer, I'm going to peel you."

Peeling politicians sounds too appealing, but the resulting disgust could be worse than tears.

ComingToTerms@TheHindu.co.in

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