Cardon

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A name for several large cactus species native to Mexico and the southwestern United States ; a term for an artichoke-like thistle plant in the Mediterranean region ; a Spanish surname and place name
2. Refers to both a giant columnar cactus found in desert regions ; a vegetable related to the artichoke cultivated around the Mediterranean ; as well as a family surname and geographic designation
3. Indicates a type of massive desert-dwelling cactus ; an edible plant resembling artichoke stems in Mediterranean cuisine ; and a common last name or locality in Spanish-speaking countries

Etymology: The cardon is named for a plant most English speakers have never seen. Its Spanish name, "cardón," was applied to the giant columnar cactus of northwestern Mexico, and the name traces back to the Latin "cardus," a variant of "carduus," meaning thistle. The same Latin root lies behind the vegetable "cardoon," a thistle relative grown for its edible stalks, which is the cardon's doublet in English. The shared ancestry is the surprise here: a towering desert succulent and a European garden vegetable carry the same word, distinguished only by the route each took into English. The cactus-bearing form came through Spanish, reflecting the Spanish-speaking colonial world where the plant was encountered, while the vegetable came through a different channel. Another doublet of the same root is "chard," the leafy beet relative.

Synonyms: thistle, artichoke, cactus, prickly plant, spiny plant