玉葱

See also: 玉蔥

Chinese

For pronunciation and definitions of 玉葱 – see 玉蔥 (“onion”). (This term is the simplified and variant traditional form of 玉蔥).
Notes: Simplified Chinese is mainly used in Mainland China, Malaysia, and Singapore. Traditional Chinese is mainly used in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

Japanese

Kanji in this term
玉	葱
たま Grade: 1	ねぎ Hyōgai
kun'yomi

Alternative spelling
玉ねぎ

Etymology

From 玉(たま) (tama, “ball”) + 葱(ねぎ) (negi, “scallion, green onion”), literally “ball scallion”.

Note that in Japanese, 葱 (green onion) is the more basic term from which “onion” is derived, while in English it is the reverse – “onion” is basic, while “green onion” is derived from it, reflecting the different importance in cuisine (葱 is more basic to Japanese cuisine, onion is more basic to English cuisine).

Pronunciation

(Tokyo) たまねぎ [tàmánéꜜgì] (Nakadaka – [3])^[1]
IPA^(key): [ta̠ma̠ne̞ɡʲi]

Noun

玉(たま)葱(ねぎ) or 玉葱(タマネギ) • (tamanegi)

onion, Allium cepa

Usage notes

As with many terms that name organisms, this term is often spelled in katakana, especially in biological contexts (where katakana is customary).

Descendants

→ Amis: tamaniki
→ Korean: 다마네기 (damanegi)

References

^ NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, editor (1998), NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 [NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary] (in Japanese), Tokyo: NHK Publishing, Inc., →ISBN

“玉^▲葱”, in 漢字ぺディア [Kanjipedia]‎^[1] (in Japanese), The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation, 2015–2026

[NHK-1] NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, editor (1998), NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 [NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary] (in Japanese), Tokyo: NHK Publishing, Inc., →ISBN

[1]