•the most highly proteinaceous vegetable known; the fruit of the soybean plant is used in a variety of foods and as fodder (especially as a replacement for animal protein)
Etimoloji
Borrowed from Dutch soja; from the Satsuma dialectal Japanese そや (soya), which is the topicalized form of 醤油 (そい, soi) (cognate to standard Japanese 醤油 (しょうゆ, shōyu)), from Late Middle Japanese 醤油 (しやうゆ, shiyauyu), orthographic borrowing from Middle Chinese 醬油 (tsjàng-yuw), from 醬 (tsjangᴴ, “bean paste”) + 油 (“oil”).