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The source of the Pali word from which ginger derives was a Sanskrit compound meaning literally "horn-body" - a reference to the shape of the edible ginger root. By the time it had passed through Greek ziggiberis into Latin, it had become zinziberi. After classical times this developed to gingiber or gingiver, which Old English borrowed as gingifer. English acquired the word again in the 13th century from Old French, and this combined with the descendant of the Old English form to produce Middle English gingivere, from which modern English ginger is derived.
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