Ginkgo

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈɡɪŋ.kəʊ/

Definitions

1. A unique, ancient tree recognized for its distinctive fan-shaped leaves and remarkable adaptability, often found in urban gardens and landscapes
2. An exceptional tree with a rich evolutionary history, featuring unique, broad leaves and cultivated for its ornamental value in various settings
3. A distinctive tree species notable for its unique fan-shaped foliage and resilience in diverse environments, commonly utilized in landscaping and urban gardens

Etymology: The tree's name is a typo that became standard. Engelbert Kaempfer, a German physician who was the first Westerner to see the species in Japan, described it in his 1712 work "Amoenitatum exoticarum", where the name was printed as "Ginkgo". The Japanese original, "ginkyō", was written with characters meaning "silver apricot", a reference to the fruit's appearance. Kaempfer's transcription would have produced "Ginkjo" or "Ginkio", but the printer's version is what survived. The spelling was fixed when the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus read Kaempfer's book and used the printed form in his classification of plants. Once Linnaeus adopted it, the misspelling became the scientific standard, and botanists kept it even though it does not follow the Japanese pronunciation. The sound "gink-go" therefore reflects a European reading of a Japanese word, not the original sound.

Synonyms: tree, plant, herb, deciduous tree, living fossil