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cepa

Meaning

Concepts

onion

Frequency

Pronounced as (IPA)

[ˈkeː.pa]

A borrowing from an unknown, possibly Anatolian source, cf. Hesychian Ancient Greek κάπια (kápia, “onions”) claimed for Ceryneia and the complex of Arabic قُبَّعَة (qubbaʕa, “bulbous hat”). Given the borrowing of Proto-Slavic *lukъ (“onion”), it is probable that the Italians at the date of their expansion also only knew ramsons, as a kind of ālium. At least it is known that spring onion was only introduced in the modern period from China, while the bulb onion is also Asiatic, such that ancient Africa knew the cultivated onion only in the north, by generic names like Egyptian ḥḏw, it having expanded beyond the Great Desert only by the Arabs under their name بَصَل (baṣal).