Deep Onions: Origins Of The Name? Semantics Analysis

The Semantics of 'Deep Onions': An analysis of Deep Onion's name.

My idea today was to start thread about why 'Deep Onion' was chosen as a name for this promising coin. I started by asking myself why was it that the name Deep Onion was chosen? Is there any hidden meaning behind this privacy coin? And if so, is it possible to break down this meaning to get in the minds of its creators or better yet, to simply understand how the name would be interpreted by the general public as mass adoption begins to rise in cryptocurrencies.

I started brainstorming a little and realized there is a lot of "deeper" meaning behind the choice of this name. No pun intended. However i have to admit that my analysis may be a complete long-shot because there is no substantial evidence to suggest that Deep Onion was chosen aside from the most obvious two reasons (as referenced in a previous article https://deeponion.org/community/threads/article-deeponion-whats-in-the-name-history-is-written-newcomers-info.11676/ (Article: DeepOnion – What's In The Name? History Is Written. (newcomers Info))):

To repeat the summary of that article:

The meaning of Deep: is a derivation of the Deep Web. "Deep comes from the TOR network. A part of the TOR network is also called deep web. It’s called like this because content in the deep web can’t be found by standard search engines. The biggest weakness of the Deep web is also its greatest strength: it’s really hard to find anything." - Sir_Justin
The meaning of Onion: "Onion comes from TOR's many layers. The heart of the onion is secured by many layers. It’s metaphorical the deep web, which is really hard to find because of its many layers. The onion also stands for the highly secure transactions and untraceable payments." - Sir_Justin

Other commentators have cited that: "Onion comes from Tor, because Tor's logo is an Onion." - molecularman.

Which in fact is completely true also:

Occam's Razor suggests that although there may be an extremely large, perhaps even incomprehensible, number of possible and more complex alternatives, usually the simplest explanation should be desired until evidence can be provided to support a competing theory.

In this case, the name Deep Onion does arise simply from a metaphor of a crypto-currency existing through the TOR network. However for many who don't know what the TOR Network is, my suspicion is that their first impression upon hearing about "Deep Onion" will follow a similar pathway of understanding based on widely accepted interpretations and connotations arising from the name "Deep Onion", and in particular the "Onion". Whether this has a positive or negative effect on the popularity of this coin in the longer term is still yet to be seen. As a common analogy, when "Apple" first launched, the name "Apple" was a head-turner, because it was named after a fruit and really had no other meaning besides that. Yet today, it is synonymous with one of the leading computer, and phone producers in the world and with a market cap of just over $850 Billion USD.

This is precisely why i believe a semantics analysis of "Deep Onion" is overdue, because if we as a community to go forward, a clearer picture of our key label, i.e. the name, will inherently shape the course of that growth.

Below i have outlined a sequence of areas i began my research on, starting with the Definition of an Onion and so on. It is by no means comprehensive, but my aim was to cover the most basic interpretations and expand from there.

Definition of Onion:
On the simplest level in the English language, an 'Onion' is defined by the following:

"A swollen edible bulb used as a vegetable, having a pungent taste and smell and composed of several concentric layers" - Oxford English Dictionary

It can also be in reference to the plant of the onion.

"The plant that produces the onion, with long rolled or straplike leaves and spherical heads of greenish-white flowers" - Oxford English Dictionary

Idioms/Phrases using Onions:

Furthermore, 'Onions' are commonly used in sayings such as this:

"To know one's Onions"
Meaning: To be very knowledgeable or skilled in some area. Primarily heard in UK, Australia.

Oxford English Dictionary

"Life is like an onion. You peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep."

Carl Sandburg

Popular Culture Interpretations and Use of Onions:
And of course, no semantics analysis could neglect the use of the word Onion and possible connotations brought about by popular culture.

One of the most repeated references to 'Onions' can be found in the Dreamworks animated movie Shrek, where Shrek analogized Ogres as the same as Onions.

To quote the exact scene referenced in Shrek which can be viewed here Youtube Link:

Shrek: "For your information there is a lot more to ogres than people think"

Donkey: "Example?"

Shrek: "Example? Oh... ok... uhmmmm... Ogres are like ONIONS"

Donkey: "(Whiffs) ... They stink?"

Shrek: "Yes! (wait) No!"

Donkey: "Or they make your cry?"

Shrek: "No!"

Donkey: "Oh you leave them out in the sun, then they get all brown and start sprouting little white hair?"

Shrek: "(exasperated) Noo! (pause) LAYERS!.... ONIONS have Layers!, OGRES have Layers! Onions have layers, you get it! We both have layers! (throws onion)" [Shrek walks off in anger]

Donkey: "Ohhh so you both have Layers... (sniffs thrown onion) you know not everyone likes Onions"

To summarize what was depicted in this scene, 'Onions' have layers, and these layers within this everyday household vegetable may be the precise reason why this is a common theme in both the TOR logo and the Deep Onion logo whereby both use the technology commonly referred to as "Onion routing".
In fact, TOR was originally named the "Onion router" because it was able to encrypt and hide the the user's location and identity by first breaking it down into layers and then sending these encrypted layers to a set of random relays and then decrypted incrementally to provide the content to its destination without revealing or knowing the source's IP.

Deep Onion which rides on the TOR network currently allows for the hiding of IP addresses however transactions can still be tracked in a sense until the DeepSend functionality is launched.

In conclusion, i think the name 'Deep Onion' is a highly pertinent and memorable name and much like the name "Apple" may or may not have any real deeper meaning behind it. For all i know, it is a unique name, it does allude to the technology of the Dark Web through the use of 'Deep' and the 'Onion' reference is primarily a reference to the 'Layers' of an onion, which is paramount to the underlying technology behind the coin.

How we interpret and respond to the name will of course vary from person to person, and can elicit differing responses from different age groups, genders, backgrounds and most importantly different levels of knowledge.

Hopefully, with this article i've shed a bit more light on the semantics of the name, its interpretation and the associated linguistics of 'Deep Onion'.

upload_2018-2-15_17-26-12.