Four Times Cynara Drawing

Artichokes, created by using watercolour and oil pastels, plus a coat of spray varnish. The English word artichoke was borrowed in the sixteenth century from the northern Italian word articiocco (the standard modern Italian being carciofo). The Italian term was itself borrowed either from Spanish alcarchofa (today usually alcachofa) or directly from the source of the Spanish word—medieval Andalusi Arabic الخرشوفة (al-kharshūfa, including the Arabic definite article al). The Arabic form kharshūfa is still used in Maghrebi Arabic today, while other variants in Arabic include kharshafa, khurshūfa, and Modern Standard Arabic khurshūfa. These Arabic forms themselves derive from classical Arabic حرشفة (ḥarshafa), but the origins of that word are not clear.Other languages which derive their word for the artichoke from Arabic include Israeli Hebrew, which has the word חֻרְשָׁף (khursháf). source: Wikipedia