the.com/soy

means A legume whose seeds yield a versatile protein used to make sauces, oils, milk-substitutes, and meat alternatives.

from Soy traces back through Dutch 'soya' to Japanese 'shōyu,' meaning soy sauce, which itself comes from Chinese roots for salted bean condiment. The word rode into English on the trade routes of East Asian fermented sauces before the bean itself became the global commodity we know today — so the name for the sauce ended up lending itself to the plant.