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Old 11-27-2014, 01:13 PM
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Default Turkeys and other Indian fowl

Why Americans Call Turkey 'Turkey' - The Atlantic

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Here’s where things get even more bewildering. Turkey, which has no native turkeys, does not call turkey "turkey." The Turks “knew the bird wasn’t theirs,” Forsyth explains, so they “made a completely different mistake and called it a hindi, because they thought the bird was probably Indian.” They weren't alone. The French originally called the American bird poulet d’Inde (literally “chicken from India”), which has since been abbreviated to dinde, and similar terms exist in languages ranging from Polish to Hebrew to Catalan. Then there’s the oddly specific Dutch word kalkoen, which, as a contraction of Calicut-hoen, literally means “hen from Calicut,” a major Indian commercial center at the time. These names may have arisen from the mistaken belief at the time that the New World was the Indies, or the sense that the turkey trade passed through India.

So what is the bird called in India? It may be hindi in Turkey, but in Hindi it’s ṭarki.
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Old 11-27-2014, 02:12 PM
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Default Re: Turkeys and other Indian fowl


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Old 11-27-2014, 03:36 PM
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Default Re: Turkeys and other Indian fowl

That is the strangest 10 minutes of research I have spent in a long time. Who knew that a simple bird could cause so much worldwide confusion. I do wonder why one of the American Indian names for it didn't stick, as Coyote did. I think one of the Spanish words, guajolote, is derived from a Native American language.

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The turkey’s scientific name doesn't make much more sense than its vernacular one. Its binomial nomenclature, Meleagris gallopavo, is a hodgepodge. The first name comes from a Greek myth in which the goddess Artemis turned the grieving sisters of the slain Meleager into guinea fowls. The second name is a portmanteau: Gallo is derived from the Latin word for rooster, gallus, while pavo is the Latin word for peacock. So, effectively, the official name for a turkey is guinea-fowl-rooster-peacock.
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Old 11-27-2014, 04:16 PM
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Default Re: Turkeys and other Indian fowl

Let's just call them gobblers. Based on their calls.

Not on the fact that, conversely, we gobble them.

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Originally Posted by LadyShea View Post
I think one of the Spanish words, guajolote, is derived from a Native American language.
Pronounced "guobbleter".
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Old 11-27-2014, 05:18 PM
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Default Re: Turkeys and other Indian fowl

Turkeys are galliformes. They're related to chickens, pheasants, grouse, quail, etc.

The naming of the fowl seems to have been a series of misguided and misinformed mistakes.

It is native only to the Americas, whereas the chicken, now the world's most widespread domestic fowl, reputedly arose in Southeast or South Asia as 'junglefowl'
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Old 11-27-2014, 11:58 PM
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Default Re: Turkeys and other Indian fowl

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Originally Posted by LadyShea View Post
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So, effectively, the official name for a turkey is guinea-fowl-rooster-peacock.
That actually makes perfect sense to me.

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Old 11-29-2014, 03:52 PM
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Default Re: Turkeys and other Indian fowl

Yeah, I was going to say the same thing. Perfectly fine scientific nomenclature, really. Lots of those binomials are portmanteaus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPwDElfX2Yg
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