Go with garlic
“Well loved he garleeck, onyons and eek [also] lekes.”
— Geoffrey Chaucer, Prologue, ‘The Canterbury Tales’, c 1386
Blame Mrs Beeton! In her famous Book of Household Management (1861) she wrote: “the smell of this plant is generally considered offensive, and it is the most acrimonious in its taste of the whole alliaceous tribe . . . and disagreeable to the English palate.”
denotes bitter or stinging, while refers to the pungent smelling family: onion, garlic, leek, shallot and chives.
