Etymology

konjac

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Today it means: A foul-smelling plant grown in Asia, Amorphophallus konjac. Full definition →

Japanese 蒟蒻
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The story

  1. Japanese · derived from蒟蒻
  2. English todaykonjac

From the Latinized binomial name for the plant, Amorphophallus konjac or Arisaema konjac in earlier texts, from Japanese 蒟蒻, 菎蒻 (konnyaku) or Korean 곤약 (gonyak). The Japanese term probably derives from Old Japanese, in turn from Middle Chinese 蒟蒻 (MC kjuX|kjuH nyak). The plant is not native to the Japanese archipelago, and was imported from China.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.