Editing Onion (section)

== In popular culture ==

[[File:Onion seller in Heath Street - geograph.org.uk - 1072379.jpg|thumb|An [[Onion Johnny]], his bicycle laden with onions and garlic, in London, 2008]]

The name 'the Big Onion' was formerly used of [[New York City]], before it became 'the Big Apple', and [[Chicago]] became 'the Big Onion'.<ref name="BBC onion"/>

The 10th century [[Exeter Book]], written in [[Old English]], contains [[Exeter Book Riddle 25|a riddle]] which seems to be about an onion, with sexual overtones. The "wondrous creature, a joy to women" stands "in a bed"; "My column<!--emending ''staþole '' to ''stapole'', as suggested by Cavell<ref name="Cavell 2014"/>--> is erect and tall"; a woman "rubs me to redness" but at once "she feels my meeting"; the riddle ends "Wet will be that eye."<ref name="Cavell 2014">{{cite web |last=Cavell |first=Megan |title=Exeter Riddle 25 |url=https://theriddleages.bham.ac.uk/riddles/tag/riddle%2025/ |publisher=University of Birmingham |access-date=14 October 2024 |date=26 June 2014}}</ref>

In the ''[[Odyssey]]'', [[Homer]] included the lines "I saw the shining tunic about his skin, like the skin of a dried onion, so soft was it, and it shone in the sun".<ref>[[Homer]], ''Odyssey'' 19, lines 232-234.</ref> R. Drew Griffith comments that the double comparison of the tunic that [[Penelope]] gave to the disguised [[Odysseus]] to onion and sun "risks being funny", and notes that Theopompus indeed found it "ridiculous".<ref name="Griffith 2015"/> Griffith suggests that Homer included the onion because of its capacity to produce tears, hinting at Penelope's sorrow at Odysseus's long absence.<ref name="Griffith 2015">{{cite journal |last=Griffith |first=R. Drew |title=His tunic was like an onion or the sun (''Odyssey'' 19, 232-234) |journal=Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica |language=English |volume=109 |issue=1 |year=2015 |jstor=24645248}}</ref>

[[Onion Johnnies]] were [[Brittany|Breton]] farmers and agricultural labourers who travelled from [[Roscoff]] in Brittany, originally on foot and later on bicycles, selling strings of distinctive pink [[onions]] door to door in Britain.<ref>{{cite web |title=The history of the Johnnies of Roscoff |url=https://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/holidays/experience/the-johnnies |publisher=[[Brittany Ferries]] |access-date=14 October 2024 |url-status=live |archive-date=21 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220921173120/https://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/holidays/experience/the-johnnies}}</ref>

In India, when the price of onions became very high in 2015, the ''[[Hindustan Times]]'' recorded that people shared many onion jokes, such as the [[pun]]ning {{lang|hi|प्या (र)ज़ लो, प्याज़ दो|}} ({{transliteration|hi|pya (r)z lo, pyaz do}}, "take love, give me onions").<ref name="Kaur 2015">{{cite news |last1=Kaur |first1=Harpreet |title=Online onion humour brings tears of joy on Raksha Bandhan |url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/punjab/online-onion-humour-brings-tears-of-joy-on-raksha-bandhan/story-KEJ1Zm546jnIgNTjZ9nh9M.html |access-date=14 October 2024 |work=[[Hindustan Times]] |date=29 August 2015}}</ref>