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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605 |
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
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Keiva: You are comletely unwelcome to post in AWADtalk
Your presence here is deeply offensive to almost fifty
members.
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
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?
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Kieva: You are cordially detested by about fifty members.
Have you no shame, that you continue to polllute AWADtalk?
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,346 |
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 liqueurI 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.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
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.
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 3
stranger
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OP
stranger
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 3 |
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
Copycat
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
>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
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
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
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