ginkgo

See also: Ginkgo and gingko

English

Gingko tree

Etymology

From Japanese 銀杏 (ginkyō), from Chinese 銀杏／银杏 (yínxìng, “silver apricot”). Ginkgo is the name that is printed in Amoenitatum exoticarum politico-physico-medicarum Fasciculi V [...] (1712) authored by Engelbert Kaempfer, the first Westerner to see the species. In his way of transcription ginkyo would have been Ginkjo or Ginkio but was printed as Ginkgo. This was read by Carl Linnaeus, and the misspelling stuck.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɪŋ.kəʊ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪŋkəʊ

Noun

ginkgo (plural ginkgos or ginkgoes)

1. Ginkgo biloba, a tree native to China with small, fan-shaped leaves and edible seeds.
   • 2015 October 29, Dave Taft, “The Female Ginkgo Tree’s Acrid Smell of Success”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     Like cycads — their gymnosperm relatives — and ferns, the ginkgo produces motile sperm. […] In fact, the tree was originally thought to be extinct in the wild until two populations were located in China. Such native ginkgos remain rare, with a preference for rich, streamside habitats.

2. The seed of a ginkgo tree.
   • 2001, J. G. Thirlwell (lyrics and music), “Heuldoch 7B”, in Flow, performed by Foetus:

     I swear the gingko's working in reverse

Alternative forms

• gingko

Synonyms

• maidenhair tree

Derived terms

• ginkgo nut
• ginkgo-toothed beaked whale (Mesoplodon ginkgodens)

Translations

tree

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 銀杏 / 银杏 (zh) (yínxìng), 白果 (zh) (báiguǒ), 公孫樹 / 公孙树 (zh) (gōngsūnshù)

• Dutch: ginkgo (nl) m, Japanse notenboom (nl) m
• Esperanto: ginko
• Finnish: neidonhiuspuu (fi)
• French: ginkgo (fr) m, gingko (fr) m
• German: Ginkgo (de) m, Ginko m, Ginkgobaum (de) m, Ginkobaum m, Ginkjo m, Mädchenhaarbaum m, Frauenhaarbaum m
• Greek: γκίγκο (gkígko)
• Hawaiian: nanahana
• Hungarian: ginkgó, páfrányfenyő (hu)
• Ido: gingko (io)
• Japanese: 銀杏 (ja) (いちょう, ichō), 公孫樹 (ja) (いちょう, ichō)
• Korean: 은행나무 (ko) (eunhaengnamu)
• Polish: miłorząb (pl) m
• Portuguese: ginkgo m
• Romanian: ginkgo (ro) m
• Russian: ги́нкго (ru) m (gínkgo)
• Spanish: ginkgo m
• Swahili: mginko
• Swedish: ginkgo (sv) c, kinesiskt tempelträd n, tempelträd (sv) n
• Thai: แปะก๊วย (bpɛ̀-gúai)
• Welsh: coeden ginco f

seed

• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 白果 (yue) (baak⁶ gwo²)

  Mandarin: 白果 (zh) (báiguǒ), 銀杏 / 银杏 (zh) (yínxìng)

• Dutch: ginkgonoot f
• Finnish: neidonhiuspuun siemen
• French: noix de ginkgo (fr) f, noix de gingko f
• Japanese: 銀杏 (ja) (ぎんなん, ginnan)
• Korean: 은행 (ko) (eunhaeng)
• Russian: ги́нкго (ru) m (gínkgo)
• Swahili: ginko
• Thai: แปะก๊วย (bpɛ̀-gúai)

Anagrams

• gingko

French

Alternative forms

• (dated) gingko, (dated) gingo, ginko, (dated) ginkyo

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʒiŋ.ko/, /ɡiŋ.ko/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

ginkgo m (plural ginkgos)

1. ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba)

   Synonyms: arbre aux abricots d’argent, arbre aux quarante écus, ginkgo-biloba

Further reading

• “ginkgo” in the Dictionnaire de l’Académie française, 9th Edition (1992-).
• “ginkgo” in Dictionnaire français en ligne Larousse.
• “ginkgo” in Dictionnaire Le Robert.
• “ginkgo”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• gingko
• ginco (rare)

Noun

ginkgo m (plural ginkgos)

1. ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba, a tree of China)

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French ginkgo.

Noun

ginkgo m (plural ginkgo)

1. ginkgo

Declension

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	ginkgo	ginkgoul		ginkgo	ginkgoi
genitive-dative	ginkgo	ginkgoului		ginkgo	ginkgolor
vocative	ginkgoule			ginkgolor

Spanish

Noun

ginkgo m (plural ginkgos)

1. ginkgo

Further reading

• “ginkgo”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10