With the World Cup in full swing I was wondering why a turkey (bird) and Turkey (country) share the same name. I'd be really interested to find out how two so completely different things came to have the same name. Thanks

Welcome aBoard Kay

This one proved a lot more straightforward than I expected. I had been going on the theory that there was no relation in the etymologies of the two words, that the two words had ended up sounding the same by accident.

However, from Merriem Webster (http://www.webster.com):

Main Entry: tur·key
Pronunciation: 't&r-kE
Function: noun
Etymology: Turkey, country in western Asia and southeastern Europe; from confusion with the guinea fowl, supposed to be imported from Turkish territory

So there you have it. Unless M-W is wrong, of course...

Fisk

here's a couple of links about Turkey(the country):

http://www.turkishembassy.org/countryprofile/anatolia.htm
http://www.firmam.8m.com/trintro.htm

I was curious as to what those in Turkey call their country.
there's a lot of history there!

I was curious as to what those in Turkey call their country

I like the name for the main land mass: Anatolia

Poetic.

Welcome, Kay!

I'd heard a thing on the radio about turkey (the bird). Apparently there has long been mass confusion worldwide about where the bird came from, so each language gave it a name attributing it to, what is to them, a foreign, exotic, faraway land. In Turkish, it's hindi, which sounds like they believe it was from India! Further support for this is found in Scandinavian words for the same bird - I believe, for example, it's kalkun in Norwegian ("from Calcutta" or something like that) Also, in French, it's dindon (or is it dinde?), more or less equivalent to d'Inde: from India.

in Turkish, it's hindi, which sounds like they believe it was from India

Fascinating, old Bean.

So are they confused where the bird came from in Calcutta or India? It would be neat if Indians also called it something like "turkey".

I doubt it would be the first time two countries attributed the same species of animal to one other. Especially if it were a virus rather than an animal

I hope I'm not repeating something previously said, but I have read that Ben Franklin
proposed the turkey as our national bird, because it is much smarter than the
eagle.

you could also search AWAD for more information, as this subject has come up before.. but it was a good while ago..

all exotic things were associated with "turkish" merchants, and so any new exoitic thing was "turkish" when the new bird appeared, it was a turkey..

similarly, "copiers" tend to become Xerox machines, and "coke" in someparts of US is generic for carbonated, sweetened beverages..

so any new exotic thing was "turkish" when the new bird appeared, it was a turkey..

I find it very hard to think of a turkey as exotic

Mind you, my mum's mentioned once or twice how - not that long ago (1960s)- chickens used to be a real rarity (at least in this country).

Really hard to imagine these days.

I would guess that the turkey bore some resemblance to the peacock, certainly exotic, and also from the same region of the world, I believe.

I have read that Ben Franklin proposed the turkey as our national bird, because it is much smarter than the eagle.

Info I'm told: the wild turkey is an extremely intelligent bird, and therefore extremely difficult to hunt.
Info from experience: the domesticated turkey is one of the stupidest birds in existence.

One sometimes hears that "domesticated turkeys are so lacking in intelligence that they will look up at falling rain until they drown." This, though apparently an urban legend, is a fair metaphor for the animal's intelligence.
http://www.snopes2.com/critters/wild/turkey.htm

Keiva: You are comletely unwelcome to post in AWADtalk
Your presence here is deeply offensive to almost fifty
members.

Drat. Of course my computer died when I spilled the coffee into it, and so I've lost the adjective for "turkey" that tsuwm dug up. I wish (click heels three times) that someone would resuscitate it.

Turkey and beauty: They are. At least the wild ones I've seen here in Virginia. Theirs are feathers of truly exotic iridescence: maroons, deep golds, coffee browns, dark forest greens--all mingled like some feathery liqueur. The turkey's colors are very deeply colored and exotic. [How does one explain paisley's coming from Scotland. Makes no sense to me. Paisley seems to be by far more Indian than Scot, speaking of the exotic.]

It's the turkeys' big-bellied bodies that make them appear to be cumbersome and comical. And the wattles don't help much, either.

Put the turkey on a diet, throw in some aerobic exercise, lose the wattles (and those other hanging red dangling things), set it into sunlight, and, voila! There's a bird worth recording in the annals of beauty. And it could use a change of name, too. Turkey isn't a word with much inherent beauty. Tuh---errrrrrrrr----kuh----eeeeee. Jolting, it is.

PS: Again, can anybody pull up the adjective form just one more time?

PS: Again, can anybody pull up the adjective form just one more time?

At your service, ma'am, and with credit to tsuwm
http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=weeklythemes&Number=71142

Kieva: You are cordially detested by about fifty members.
Have you no shame, that you continue to polllute AWADtalk?

Turkey and beauty: They are. At least the wild ones I've seen here in Virginia. Theirs are feathers of truly exotic iridescence: maroons, deep golds, coffee browns, dark forest greens--all mingled like some feathery liqueur

I stand corrected, WW. Y'see, we don't get wild turkeys in this country [awaiting correction from compatriots] [then realises that none are currently posting ]

feathery liqueur - bloody marvelous turn of phrase.

Dinde (1 syl.). The French for a turkey is poulet d'Inde (an Indian fowl). This is an error as the bird
comes from America unless indeed the whole Western continent with all its contiguous islands be called
by the name of West Indies. Our word "turkey" is no better if indeed it means a native of Turkey.

Re the kalkun (the Norwegian spelling of turkey) - it's interesting to note that in Afrikaans - one of our 11 official languages - a turkey is a 'kalkoen' while the country is 'Turkye'. These languages !!!!

Copycat

>I've lost the adjective for "turkey" that tsuwm dug up. I wish (click heels three times) that someone would resuscitate it.

meleagrine

>lose the wattles (and those other hanging red dangling things)

snood - the fleshy appendage that hangs from the beak of a male turkey

-joe (your erstwhile word source) friday

Thanks, Joe. I hoped it wasn't so that I'd never know the adjective for "turkey-like." Or "of the turkey." Or "of a turkey." Meleagrine looks something like both margarine and migraine...and mealy, too. And perigrine. There's gotta be a mnemonic in there somewhere.

Bird regards,
WordWattles

why it's easy, if'n you just remember the genus is Meleagris. 8-)

-haired Meleager's life depended on a burning piece of wood. He was married but nevertheless loved
Atalanta, towards whom he was kind enough to provoke a war. Meleager led the Calydonian Boar Hunt.


Prophecy
When Meleager was only seven days old the MOERAE appeared and declared that he
should die when the brand burning on the hearth was burnt out. Clotho said that he would
be noble and Lachesis that he would be brave, but Atropus looked at the brand burning
on the hearth and said:

"He will live only as long as this brand remains unconsumed." [Hyginus,
Fabulae 171]

Meleager's mother Althaea, on hearing that, took up the brand and put it into a chest, but
many years later this same brand was set afire again and Meleager died.
One of the
ARGONAUTS
But before that Meleager, being invulnerable, had the time to become a famous hero, and
just for a start he joined the ARGONAUTS, who sailed from Greece and came to Colchis
in Caucasus in order to fetch the Golden Fleece. At their return many among those who
had been ARGONAUTS participated in what has come to be known as the Calydonian
Boar Hunt.
His father's
negligence
For it happened that Meleager's father King Oeneus 2 of Calydon, while sacrificing the
first fruits of the annual crops of the country to all the gods, forgot Artemis. For this
reason, they say, the goddess sent a boar of extraordinary size and strength, which
prevented the land from being sown and destroyed both cattle and people.

So, my question is, was Meleager a turkey?