List of English Words of Chinese Origin - G

G

Ginkgo

mistransliteration of 銀杏 (ginkyō or ginnan) in Japanese

Ginseng

from Hokkien Chinese 人參 jîn-sim, rendered in Mandarin as renshen, name of the plant. Some say the word came via Japanese (same kanji), although 人参 now means 'carrot' in Japanese; ginseng is 朝鮮人參 ('Korean carrot').

Go

From the Japanese name igo 囲碁 of the Chinese board game. Chinese 圍棋, Mandarin: Weiqi.

Gung-ho

from Mandarin 工合, short for 工業合作社

Gyoza

Japanese ギョーザ, gairaigo from Chinese 餃子 (Mandarin: Jiaozi), stuffed dumpling. Gyoza in English refers to the fried dumpling style (as opposed to water boiled).