The plural of ginseng; multiple plants of the ginseng family, prized in Asian traditional medicine for their fleshy roots believed to have medicinal properties.
From Chinese 'rénshēn' (人參, literally 'man root,' because the root resembles a human figure). The word entered English in the 17th century through trade with China and Korea.
Ginseng's name literally means 'man root' in Chinese because the roots look like tiny people—this imaginative naming shows how cultures see human shapes in nature and invest magical properties in those resemblances.
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