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The Learning Kingdom's Cool Word of the Day for March 17, 1999
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artichoke [n. AR-tih-choke]
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An artichoke is the large, edible flower of Cynara scolymus, a
thistle-like plant from the Mediterranean region, and it's also the
name of the whole plant. If you've ever eaten the central "heart" of
an artichoke, with its dense, hairy covering, you might think the name
has something to do with "choking on the heart."
Actually, the word comes from the Arabic al-kharshuf (the edible
flower of a plant in the thistle family). The word migrated into Old
Spanish, as alcarchofa, then into Italian as articiocco.
Although the "true" artichoke is an edible thistle flower, similar to
the original Arabian plant, the word was first applied in English to a
different plant, the Jerusalem artichoke. The latter, a member of the
sunflower family, is not from Jerusalem, and its flowers are not
edible. The name was modified from the Italian girasole (sunflower).
More about artichokes:
http://www.artichokes.net/
What can you do with artichokes? Here are some ideas:
http://soar.berkeley.edu/recipes/vegetables/artichokes/
The Jerusalem artichoke has edible tubers:
http://www.rce.rutgers.edu/weeddocuments/artchoke.htm
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