Easton's Bible Dictionary

The Israelites in the wilderness longed for the "onions and garlick of Egypt" (Numbers 11:5). This was the betsel of the Hebrews, the Allium cepe of botanists, of which it is said that there are some thirty or forty species now growing in Palestine. The onion is "the `undivided' leek, unio_, _unus, one." Noah Webster?s New International Dictionary of the English Language(n.) A liliaceous plant of the genus Allium (A. cepa), having a strong-flavored bulb and long hollow leaves; also, its bulbous root, much used as an article of food. The name is often extended to other species of the genus.