Meaning

originBorrowed from Japanese ごぼう, ゴボウ, 牛蒡 (gobō, “burdock (Arctium lappa); burdock root”), from Middle Chinese 牛蒡 (ŋɨu pɑŋ^X, “burdock”) (modern Mandarin 牛蒡 (niúbàng)), from 牛 (ŋɨu, “ox”) + 蒡 (pɑŋ^X, a word only appearing in the compound 牛蒡), possibly because oxen have been observed eating the leaves of the plant when recovering from illness.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0