Why do we say to put ourselves “in a row of onions”
To stand “in a line of onions” means to line up, to line up one behind the other. Do you know why and where this expression can come from?
To put oneself “ in row of onions ” is a rather old French expression since writings of 1654 can attest that it already existed at the time.
And to Originating in the 17th century, the phrase had a nuance of size. It meant to stand in a row in a line where there are people of greater condition than oneself, including a social hierarchy between the people constituting the row.
This meaning has disappeared today to keep only the idea of alignment, of a daughter of people.
An unlikely first origin would be an allusion to Baron d'Oignon, master of ceremonies at the Estates General of Blois. The latter obviously liked to place the personalities and assign, for example to each deputy, a rank and a place.
Implausible explanation because without real foundations except the link with the funny name of the Baron.
The most likely explanation comes from the fact that the peasants in the countryside made bundles of onions by linking them together with a straw tie. They placed the biggest ones first and continued with smaller and smaller onions. This would therefore be where the expression row of onions comes from with the idea of alignment and hierarchy (social) from the beginnings.
If originally onion could sometimes be found in the singular, onions is now always in the plural.
