The word 洋葱 (yángcōng) for "onion" is formed by combining two characters for their literal meanings to create a new concept. The first character, 洋 (yáng), originally means "ocean" but by extension came to mean "foreign" or "imported from overseas". The second character, 葱 (cōng), means "scallion" or "green onion", a plant familiar in China. Thus, the compound literally paints the image of a "foreign scallion", directly describing the vegetable as an onion-like plant that was introduced from abroad.