cardoon

Etymology

It is partly inherited from Middle English cardoun,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman cardoun (“thistle, teasel”),^[4] and partly borrowed from Middle French cardon (“edible plant like an artichoke”), recorded in French from the mid 16th century.^[4] The French word is from Old Occitan cardon (“thistle, wild artichoke”),^[4][5][6][7] from Late Latin cardō (“great thistle, teasel, cardoon”),^[4][8][5] from Latin carduus (“thistle, cardoon, artichoke”), also cardus.^[4][8] The OED calls the Latin word of unknown origin;^[4] Etymonline suggests Proto-Indo-European *kars- (“to scrape, scratch”),^[5] and Klein and Hoad relate it to the word behind card, the comb.^[6][9] The Shorter Oxford, Hoad and the Oxford Dictionary of English instead take the French word from carde (“edible part of an artichoke”).^[10][9][11] The ending was respelled after nouns in -oon,^[1][10] and the word is a doublet of chard.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A thistle: before 1425, in a Latin–English nominale, “Hic cardo, cardoun”.^[4][2] The plant related to the artichoke is first recorded in 1594, in Orchard & Garden: “Cardons and Artochokes must be sowne in April or March, when the moone is old.”^[4]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word named wild plants: a thistle and the fuller's teasel, the latter in a Middle English Chauliac.^[2] That use died out,^[4] and the name returned at the end of the 16th century with the French word for the cultivated vegetable.^[4] The OED notes that modern French normally keeps cardon for the edible plant and chardon for thistles.^[4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged adds that the plant is also grown for its silvery-gray foliage.^[8]

Timeline

• before 1425 – a thistle; also the fuller's teasel (obsolete).^[4][2]
• 1594 – the plant Cynara cardunculus, eaten as a vegetable.^[4] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster date it to the 1610s and 1611.^[5][12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large thistle-like Mediterranean plant (Cynara cardunculus) closely related to the artichoke, with spiny leaves and purple flowers.^{[8][13][3][4]}
2. The blanched leafstalks or roots of this plant, cooked and eaten as a vegetable.^[8][13][4]
3. (obsolete, before 1425) A thistle or teasel.^[4][2]

Related words

• chard
• carduus
• card

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins