This is how the turkeys got their name

The truth behind America's favorite bird moniker


"It's the season we think of turkeys - namely:How to eat better. But while the focus is usually on the quality of its taste or succulent, or if a smaller and smaller bird must be stuffed inside (chicken? Duck?) There is a part of the Bird many people neglect thinking about: word "turkey" itself. In fact, the nomenclature of America's favorite holiday bird is surprisingly interesting.

It's a big mix.

The name "Turkey" accounts all the way back in the 1540s, when the term was originally used to describe a bird imported into Madagascar Europe - as Turkey.

"This bird was a guinea type type,Numida Meleeagris-Unne, or not very closely tied, to what we now call Turcys, "says Carrie Gillon, co-founder ofFast brown fox consultation, who holds a doctorate. Linguistics and co-hosts Linguistic podcastThe vocalfries. "This Guinea poultry was also called" Turkey Fowl ", which [was then] shortened" Turkey ".

Thus, when the British settlers have arrived in the new world and met with the bird, we know today as Turkey - a big native forest poultry in North America, which had been domesticated by the Aztecs in what would become Mexico - They simply called a "Turkey," too.

"Once both birds have been scarred," Turkey "has been applied to the North American bird instead of African (although it would not have been too accurate for the bird)," says Gillon.

While the Americans gave the bird a name that refers inaccurately its origins, a number of other European countries have done something similar. Probably related to the bad idea that the Americas were part of East Asia (Exhibition A: Christopher Columbus originally leading to the region "India"), many countries now refer to the "Indian" roots of The bird. In French, they call itIndia chicken, or "Chicken of India". In Russia, the bird is known asindyushka, or "Bird of India". In Poland isindy. And even in Turkey herself, they call itHindi(Turkish for "India"). The poor bird could simply not catch a break.

Surely, it can not be everything, right?

There is a second similar theory, in which the turkeys were shipped from the United States to England across the Middle East. The British applied the moniker "Turkey" to many products on the other side of the Danube and, likeNPR'sRobert Krulwich puts him"Persian rugs were called" turkey carpet ". Indian flour was called" turkey flour ". Hungarian carpet bags were called" turkey bags ".

Thus, the delicious birds of North America won the name "Turkey-Coq" and possibly just "Turkey". Whatever the explanation that is right and both are probably at least partially correct - Turkey had its name through a confusion or negligence combo.

All this, of course, asks the following question: Why "Turkey" has become a negative duration, applied to a person who does something stupid or stupid? Gillon, for his part, answers this question with another question.

"Have you seen a wild turkey in real life?" she asks. "They are ridiculous."

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Categories: Smarter Living
Tags: animals / Trivia
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