Rapscallion

I was shopping for groceries this evening, when a woman comes up and asks me if I know what a "scallon" is. After a brief pause, we both tentatively ask the same question: "Scallion?"

From vague recollection, I venture that it's long and green, possibly with a bulb on the end. In my mind, I'm still trying not get it confused with a shallot (or at least what I think that is). We walk over to the herbs section. Leeks and chives abound, but no scallions. Finally, I venture that it's like an onion - a green onion - and wish her well in the herb quest.

On the walk home, I kept mulling over the question, and wondering just how different scallions are from green onions. I've used scallions in a recipe once, many years ago, but they were handed to me in a cooking class. As soon as all the groceries are loaded into the refrigerator, I have to run upstairs to look it up right away. The answer is: they are the same thing. To further complicate matters, the answer changes depending on which country you're in, where they may variously be called shallots, or eschallots, or even escallions (pronounced with a silent e!).