En rang d'oignons

Literally: In a row of onions

Example: “Les invités attendaient en rang d'oignons devant la mairie.” — The guests were waiting in a neat row outside city hall.

Origin: A gardener does plant onions in tidy rows — but so he does leeks, carrots and lettuces, which leaves the onion unexplained. The story usually told sends it to Blois and the Estates General of 1576 and 1588, where the master of ceremonies who assigned the lords and deputies their places was Artus de la Fontaine-Solaro, baron d'Oignon, a stickler for precedence who had served kings since Henri II. The dates undo it. In 1611 se mettre en rang d'oignons meant something else entirely — to insert yourself into company where you have no business being — and Randle Cotgrave has it in 1672 as se mettre en rang d'oignon et ne valoir une échalote, to usurp a place you are not worthy of. The modern sense only appears in 1654, and the older one ran on for another century beside it. Leroux de Lincy, cited by Littré, offers the plain answer instead: country people bundled onions with straw ties, largest first and the rest behind.