From Wikipedia:
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, and Modern Standard Arabic khurshūfa. These Arabic forms themselves derive from classical Arabic حرشفة (harshafa) singular word of the plural حراشف (ḥarashef) meaning "scale". Other languages which derive their word for the artichoke from Arabic include Israeli Hebrew, which has the word חֻרְשָׁף (khursháf). The original Hebrew name (see Hebrew: he:ארטישוק) is קינרס kinars, which is found in the Mishna.
I recommend a full course of chicken tendies and 1000 ccs of Dewey STAT!