As all my American Blogging friends are getting ready for the big day, let me tell you where we got the name of the big brown bird we are going to devour tomorrow.
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 Turk 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 from coq d'Inde "bird of India". In Portuguese a turkey is called a peru!
Thanks to Dr. Goodword at the
Alpha Dictionary
2 comments:
Thanks for sharing the interesting information.
Enjoy the holidays! ~ Sarah
Miss Read is indeed a blessing. I did find a few only when I've shopped in England. Until I had them all, a 2nd hand bookshop and every charity shop had to be checked. You really hardly do ever see them anymore. Thanks for the visit and have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Cheers!
R
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