# ginkgo

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈɡɪŋ.kəʊ/ · frequency rank #60,115

## Definitions
1. Ginkgo biloba, a tree native to China with small, fan-shaped leaves and edible seeds.
2. The seed of a ginkgo 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.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/ginkgo