Forms: 6 archecokk, archichoke, archychock(e, artochock(e, -choke, hortichock, artichok, -chault, -chowe, artechock, -choke, archoke, artychough, 6–7 harti-, artichock(e, 6–8 -chau(x, 7 artichoake, -chou(x, -choach, hartichoak(e, -choke, hartechooke, 7–8 artichoak, 6– artichoke. [ad. north. It. articiocco, arciciocco, for arcicioffo (all in Florio), perverted forms of *alcarcioffo, mod.It. carciofo, -offo (Florio has pl. ‘carcioffi, carciocchi, carcioffoli, hartichokes’), ad. or cogn. w. OSp. alcarchofa (mod. alcachofa, Pg. alcachofra), a. Sp. Arab. al-kharshōfa (P. de Alcala) = Arab. al-kharshūf (Bocthor and others; but Freytag gives the word with ḥ, as ḥarshaf).
The phonetic genealogy seems to be: Sp. Arab. alkharshōf(a, OSp. alcarchofa, (? OIt. alcarcioffo), North It. arcicioffo, arciciocco (whence Eng. archychock), articiocco, Eng. artichock. Like other words of foreign origin, much influenced in its forms by popular etymology. Association with native words, arci- arch-, chief, cioffo horse-collar, ciocco stump, must have caused the North It. changes; in Fr. the terminal -chau was variously assimilated to chou cabbage, chaud warm, hault, haut high, as artichau, -chou, -chaud, chault, -chaut; the It. and Fr. forms were latinized in the 16th c. as articoccus, -coctus, -cactus, all with plausible though delusory etymologies, cactus being actually the ancient Latin name of the Cardoon; in Eng., explanations of the name were found in its choking the garden or the heart (horti-, harty-chocks), or having a ‘chock’ or ‘choke’ in its heart. Hence also the change from -chock to -choak, -choke. As to alleged Arabic ardī-shaukī, see Skeat.]
1. A composite plant (Cynara Scolymus), allied to the thistles, originally from Barbary and the south of Europe, widely cultivated in kitchen-gardens; its eatable parts are the fleshy bases of the involucral leaves or scales of the gigantic thistle-like flower, and its receptacle or ‘bottom,’ when freed from the bristles and seed-down or ‘choke.’
(According to De Candolle the Artichoke is only a cultivated variety of the Cardoon C. Cardunculus, and occurs nowhere truly wild. It was brought to Florence from Naples in 1466. For its introduction to England, see quot. 1599.)
1531. MS. Acc. Bk., in N. & Q., 2 Feb. (1884), 85/2. Bringing Archecokks to the Kings Grace.
1542. Boorde, Dyetary, xx. 280. There is nothing vsed to be eaten of Artochockes but the hed of them.
1548. Turner, Names of Herbes, Carduus should be wylde Archichoke, and Cinara shoulde be the gardin Archichoke. Ibid. (1551), Herbal, 87. Archy-chock.
1552. Huloet, Thystle called archoke or cowe thistle, Scolymus. Ibid., Artochokes herbe, Cynara.
1555. Fardle Facions, I. iii. 37. Gardein Thistles (whiche we calle Hortichockes).
1563. Hyll, Arte Garden., 101. The Artichocke groweth like in the heade unto the Pine apple.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb. (1586), 63 a. The Hartichoch … is a kind of Thistell, by the diligence of the Gardner brought to be a good Garden hearbe.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, lxi. 522. Of Artechokes.
1589. Shuttlew. Stewards’ Acc. (1856), I. 53. A mayed wch broughte artychoughs, iiij d.
1598. B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum., IV. ii. Like a yong artichocke, that alwayes carries pepper and salt, in it selfe.
1599. Hakluyt, Voy., II. 165. In time of memory things haue bene brought in that were not here before, as … the Artichowe in time of Henry the eight.
1599. Mirr. Policie, 71. [He] did not yet forget the niggardlinesse, but parted Lettice and Artichaux in two.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 78. I haue spoken somewhat of Thistles and Artichoux.
1634. Althorp MS., 24. For 14 dozen of hartichoakes £02 16s. 00d.
1655. Moufet & Bennet, Health’s Improv. (1746), 312. Artichokes grew sometimes only in the Isle of Sicily; and since my remembrance, they were so dainty in England, that usually they were sold for Crowns a-piece.
1688. Lond. Gaz., mmcccxxxiv/4. Right Dutch Artichoaks … for Six Shillings and eight Pence the Hundred.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Sallet, Artichaux, hot and dry.
1727. Swift, Past. Dial., Wks. 1755, IV. I. 78. The dean … shall … steal my artichoaks no more.
1832. Veg. Subst. Food, 281. Nowhere does the artichoke arrive at greater perfection than in the Orkney Islands.
b. fig.
c. 1600. J. Day, Begg. Bednall Gr., III. ii. (1881), 60. Let him alone you cross-legg’d hartichoak.
1870. E. Strachey, in Daily News, 26 Nov., 6/1. We do not condemn Victor Emmanuel and his Government because they have eaten, leaf by leaf, a whole artichoke of treaties, taking the September Convention for the last mouthful.
2. Jerusalem Artichoke: a species of Sunflower (Helianthus tuberosus), a native of tropical America, cultivated in Europe, having edible tuberous roots, somewhat resembling the Artichoke proper in flavor.
‘The name of Jerusalem Artichoke is considered to be a corruption of the Italian Girasóle Articiocco or Sunflower Artichoke, under which name it is said to have been distributed from the Farnese garden at Rome, soon after its introduction to Europe in 1617.’ W. B. Booth in Treas. Bot.
1620. Venner, Via Recta, vii. 134. Artichocks of Ierusalem, is a roote vsually eaten with butter, vinegar, and pepper.
1641. R. Brooke, Nat. Eng. Episc., I. iv. 16. Error being like the Jerusalem-Artichoake; plant it where you will, it overrunnes the ground and choakes the Heart.
1741. Compl. Fam.-Piece, II. iii. 358. Set Potatoes, and Jerusalem Artichoaks.
1861. T. L. Peacock, Gryll Grange, i. From this girasol we have made Jerusalem, and from the Jerusalem artichoke we make Palestine soup.
