huh, daikon (大根) is literally “big root”, that makes total sense but somehow never really occurred to me.
in Cantonese it’s referred to as “white carrot”.
Now I’m wondering if the “rot” in “carrot” is from “root.” The Danish name for the vegetable is yellowroot – is “car” the same as “yellow,” “orange” or “red” in some language English might have nicked it from?