Etymology

ginseng

gin·seng
G2I1N1S1E1N1G2

Today it means: Any plant of two species of the genus Panax (Panax ginseng and Panax quinquefolius), having forked roots supposed to have medicinal and aphrodisiac properties. Full definition →

Hokkien 人參 /人参
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The story

  1. Hokkien · borrowed from人參 /人参“ginseng”
  2. English todayginseng

Borrowed from Hokkien 人參 /人参 (jîn-sim, “ginseng”). Doublet of ninzin.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.