Turkey

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Turkey

Postby Dr. Goodword » Wed Nov 23, 2022 11:19 pm

• turkey •


Pronunciation: têr-kee • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. A large domestic food bird with a fan tail and a head and neck covered with a mass of bare skin, a favorite main course in the US on Thanksgiving and Christmas. 2. A stupid person. 3. A very bad piece of performance art, such as a play, movie, or symphony. 4. (Talk) Plain, serious, business, as 'Let's talk turkey, now".

Notes: Animals often get bad raps from the words we use: squirrelly, hare-brained, catty, piggy—all reflect human prejudices about animals we interact with. A widely held fallacy is that turkeys look up at the sky with their beaks open during rainstorms and drown as a result. This misconception led to the conclusion that turkeys are stupid birds, hence the second and third meanings of today's holiday word.

Image

In Play: We have now examined the word for the sound turkeys make, gobble, and the concept it contributed to, gobbledygook; it is time to look at the name of the animal itself. In addition to stupidity, turkeys are associated with plain speaking, as in "to talk turkey", but also in doing anything plainly, as in "to quit smoking cold turkey".

Word History: When Europeans began consuming exotic birds, they had problems keeping up with where they came from. These ancestors initially thought that guinea fowl came from Turkey, so they first called guinea fowl turkey-hens and turkey-cocks. Once the origin of the guinea fowl was correctly ascertained, the names turkey-hen and turkey-cock were left over, so they were transferred to what we call turkeys today. Thus, turkey comes from the name of the land of the Turks by means of two mistakes. But the English were not the only ones to mistake the origin of turkeys. Other Europeans came to the conclusion that turkeys came from India, hence the Russian name indushka, Polish indyk, and French dinde, a reduction of 'coq d'Inde' "bird of India". In Portuguese a turkey is called a peru!
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phil3ip
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Re: Turkey

Postby phil3ip » Thu Nov 24, 2022 4:38 am

It seems only fair to mention here that the word for turkey in the land that calls itself Türkiye is hindi.

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Slava
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Re: Turkey

Postby Slava » Thu Nov 24, 2022 11:29 am

And it seems only fair on this Thanksgiving Day to give thanks to you for that tidbit of information. :D

Happy Thanksgiving to All and Sundry! :mrgreen:
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

Debbymoge
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Re: Turkey

Postby Debbymoge » Thu Nov 24, 2022 12:45 pm

Thank you, Slava, for that response. My reaction also.
And, to Phil3, I hereby add my thanks.
To you and to the Good Doctor, the question...
At the end of all these mistakes and "corrections", who, in the final analysis, is the turkey?

P.S. I have heard, though I don't trust my memory any longer, that Benjamin Franklin objected to naming the bald eagle as the nation's symbol. His objection was that that bird is a scavenger and a coward.
He suggested instead the turkey, claiming it to be clever and useful, and therefore more fitting for the new country. Perhaps as a goal to strive toward?
I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.
Shakespear

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Slava
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Re: Turkey

Postby Slava » Thu Nov 24, 2022 12:58 pm

Well, as far as the country goes, here's what etymonline has on the subject:
c. 1300, from French Turc, from Medieval Latin Turcus, from Byzantine Greek Tourkos, Persian turk, a national name, of unknown origin. Said to mean "strength" in Turkish. Compare Chinese tu-kin, recorded from c. 177 B.C.E. as the name of a people living south of the Altai Mountains (identified by some with the Huns). In Persian, turk, in addition to the national name, also could mean "a beautiful youth," "a barbarian," "a robber."

In English, the Ottoman sultan was the Grand Turk (late 15c.), and the Turk was used collectively for the Turkish people or for Ottoman power (late 15c.). From 14c. and especially 16c.-18c. Turk could mean "a Muslim," reflecting the Turkish political power's status in the Western mind as the Muslim nation par excellence. Hence Turkery "Islam" (1580s); turn Turk "convert to Islam."

Meaning "person of Irish descent" is first recorded 1914 in U.S., apparently originating among Irish-Americans; of unknown origin (Irish torc "boar, hog" has been suggested). Young Turk (1908) was a member of an early 20c. political group in the Ottoman Empire that sought rejuvenation of the Turkish nation. Turkish bath is attested from 1640s; Turkish delight from 1877.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.


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