Arabic exportsFood & drinkMyths & disputes
artichoke
Arabic al-kharshūf entered Spanish with its article (alcarchofa), went through Provence into northern Italian articiocco, and from there into French, German and English, whose speakers heard 'heart' and 'choke' in it; standard Italian carciofo came straight from Arabic through Sicily, and Levantine Arabic later remade the European word as arḍī shawkī, 'earthy-thorny'.
Weakest linkProbable