köken: Probably an ancient Aramaic borrowing, given that widespread Northeastern Neo-Aramaic ܩܰܠܩܳܐ (qalqa, “cardoon”) has another widespread variant ܩܰܩܢܳܐ (qaqna). For ܩ (q) giving ک (k) see کما (komâ, “Ferula”), for the ر (r) شنار (šenâr, “swimming; horehound”) in place of شنا (šenâ), though trailing extension of a root by ر (r) within Semitic is also very often observed, so either way a match is…
köken: Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ἄκανθα f (ákantha). Sense for architecture, semantic loan from French acanthe < Latin acanthus from Ancient Greek ἄκανθος m (ákanthos) for which also see άκανθος m (ákanthos). Also see αγκάθι n (agkáthi, “thorn”).